ABRASIVE

The Tool to Cut Hard Materials at Faster Speed with Better Finish

Abrasive Materials

Abrasive is hard sand and is carefully screened and sized. The most popular abrasive used for water jet is garnet. It is hard, tough and inexpensive. Users find that garnet is by far the best for water jet cutting in terms of cost, cutting speed, mixing tube life and health hazards. Different mesh sizes of garnet are available for different applications,

120 Mesh is used when smooth finishes are required
80 Mesh is widely used for general purpose
50 Mesh is used when faster speed is more concerned rather then surface finish.

Other abrasives include olivine sand, aluminum oxide and some artificial materials.

Abrasive Consumption

The most efficient water jet cutting with a 400 MPa (about 60,000 PSI) intensifier pump uses from 0.4 kg/min. to 1.2 kg/min. of abrasive depending on orifice sizes.

Abrasive recycle

After cutting, abrasive particles become too fine and are ineffective to recycle to perform cutting properly.