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Success Stories: AquaJet Services
DATE: 15th February 2002
FROM: CHRIS BOTHA
TO: H2O Jet
REF: Abrasivejet cutting using H2O Jet Diamonds.
We have been using H2O Jet Diamond Nozzles for two years now.
Our jobshop here in South Africa cuts a variety of materials to customer specifications. Our operation varies between seventy to 125 hours a week. In our operation we are using both intensifier and crankshaft ultra-high-pressure pumps. We primarily use abrasivejet systems to cut our customers parts.
Down-time due to orifice failure is costly to us. Especially with the hard to cut and costly materials we specialize in. Some examples of the material we work with are Stainless Steel, Titanium, aluminium, thick glass and Porcelain Tile. In general, even with poor water quality, we see orifice life of around a thousand hours on H2O Jet Diamonds and only forty hours on sapphires or rubies. After the first test with your product, we found the Diamonds performed extremely well, despite poor water quality. Using H2O Jet Diamond Nozzles with our crankshaft pumps has resulted in a cutting performance increase of about 15 percent. On our intensifier pump systems we see a performance increase of approximately thirty percent on most materials. The biggest advantage however is our hourly operating costs have decreased substantially
Using H2O Jet Diamonds, we rarely have to re-cut or stop in the middle of a part program and pick-up a cut line. When using rubies or sapphires in the past, orifice failures created a great deal of downtime. Orifice-related downtime is frustrating and often requires scrapping parts as they don't meet tolerance requirements when cut with a bad orifice. The productivity gains alone justify the initial cost of using Diamonds.
Overall it is difficult to quantify the cost savings without an empirical time study. However, I can share a recent experience illustrating how well your Diamonds perform. One of our recently hired shop supervisors had never worked with Sapphire or Ruby orifices until recently when we had to use sapphires on one cutting head. After changing orifice mounts three times in one week he came to me horrified that we could have operated profitably with all the down time related to using sapphires and rubies.
Another example of your product quality & performance is with one clients' part we regularly cut. We cut thirty to forty sheets of Titanium 1mm to 6mm thick with part tolerances of .07mm to .1mm. The customer has specified we are not allowed to cut these parts with sapphires or rubies at all - only an H2O Jet Diamond! That's because we can only obtain the surface finish he requires at the right speed and cost using your Diamonds.
It has been my experience that perception rules over empirical data. If a user's perception is positive about Diamonds he will not use a sapphire or ruby. If his perception is the initial cost of using Diamonds is too high he will continue using sapphires or rubies even though his hourly operating costs will be much higher. This does not take into account downtime or part damage due to using sapphires or rubies. An added bonus we see is much longer abrasive mixing tube life as a result of the superior quality of the jet.
When taking all operating factors into consideration, using H2O Jet Diamonds far outweigh the cheap price of sapphires and rubies.
Regards, Chris Botha
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