Tuesday 17 November 2009

Waterjet CNC parts... somethings not right!

It appears that there is a problem with all of our water jet CNC cut parts :(

We had the 25mm 5083 aluminium and 1.75" steel parts cut with a dynamic head water jet CNC machine. The dynamic head is supposed to keep the sides of the material within 0.1mm of square to the face. Without the dynamic head there is a much bigger draft angle.

However, it seems some of the edges on our parts are within 0.1mm, while others are up to 0.5mm! Having taken a close look at the parts, it looks as though the cutting head was misaligned in either the X or Y axis, causing this error throughout the cutting process. This error was further compounded by the steel material being poorly clamped during the cutting process and not being held flat.

Having spoken to the water jet company, they have agreed to re-cut the parts, so today much to Josh's disappointment we packed up all the parts and sent them back. We need to start a new shelf of shame, labelled "Shelf of Others Shame!". :)