6 Tips For Better Waterjet Maintenance

In order to keep your WaterJet machine in peak operating condition here are a few tips on Waterjet maintenance that you can use:

• Try to reduce the amount of dirt and dust in the workspace: Reducing the amount of dirt and dust in your machine shop can help to increase the life of your consumables. Even small particles can affect your machine’s performance over time.

• Conduct routine maintenance checks and replace consumables frequently: Check your WaterJet everyday to make sure the consumables are in good shape. Something that starts out as a small problem can escalate quickly so it is important to check your consumables routinely to ensure they are in proper working order.
• Keep extra consumables on hand in case: Keep extra nozzles, orifices and other consumables on hand for when they need to be replaced. This will ensure that you reduce downtime on your machine by being able to replace the consumables right away instead of waiting for replacement parts.
• Use clean water to operate:  Make sure your water source is clean, pesticide and chemical free. This will allow your WaterJet to operate at its full potential, extend consumable part life, and ensure that there is no build up or sedimentation in your WaterJet parts.
• Rotate your mixing tube: When using abrasives if the jewel is misaligned the stream of water may cut to one side of the mixing tube and wear it down. To combat this effect try to rotate your mixing tube every day so that the water and abrasive is not always wearing down one side of your mixing tube.
• Check the feed rate of your abrasive: Uneven or inconsistent feed rate can cause plugging of your cutting head. This can also have implications for your cut speeds and abrasive costs. Check to see how much abrasive you really need to make the cut. Often, machine owners do not realize the possible savings of ensuring they have the exact feed rate. Abrasive expenses can add up so every little bit saved helps.