waterjet cutting and drilling

[murulidhara]

Can water jets be used for cutting and drilling materials? If so for which materials it can be used?

 

Thanks

[insane_alien]

yes they can.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_jet_cutter <should tell you all you need to know

[murulidhara]

Thank u sir. I want to know wheter water jet can be used to cut copper clad sheets (cooper foil cladded on eopxy which is reinforced with glass fibres) whis are used to fabricate printed circuit boards. Thikness varies from 0.8 mm to 3.2 mm.

 

thanks

[howareyou]

hi, i like this forum.

[insane_alien]

i'm not sure if the copper foil will peel or not but it will definitely cut through it.

[Realitycheck]

I've had it done to cut porcelain tile (the strongest variety) approximately 3/16" thick. This was done using mosaics of little tiles connected as 1' mats that were surely very hard to work with under the cutting jets. This method should work for you. I doubt that peeling would be a problem since the water jet is so smooth, ie. no serious grating caused by a saw. However, it seems that there should be a more cost-effective application for this, as water-jet cutting can be pretty expensive.

[Realitycheck]

I'm betting that circuit board manufacturers probably use a simple iron press, where you lay the board on a flat iron plate, and then the press above consists of a heavy, sharp steel blade which simply cuts it with heavy pressure.

[murulidhara]

Thank u sir. As u said Prited circuit manufacturers use press for cutting / drilling. Thy use tools as per requirement. I was thinking water jet drilling cheeper. For professional grade PCBs they use cnc high sped driling machines with carbide drill bits.

 

Regards

 

Muruli