Diamond technology

Novel single crystal

diamonds for waterjet
cutting applications
In waterjet cutting, orifices from hard materials like sapphires or rubies are normally
used to generate small coherent waterjets of very high velocities. The lifetimes
of such orifices are strongly limited to only dozens of hours due to the high water
pressure environment (typically 350 MPa) and contacts with abrasives through
the water hammer effect during cut-offs. Due to its high cost the WJ-market
has, until now, only accepted solutions with natural diamonds for special cases.
Experiments were performed with newly developed orifices from monocrystalline
synthetic diamonds (MCSD) in operation with pure water and with abrasives.
Long term experiments of up to 1,000 hours with non-specially filtered water and
a 100,000 cycle test with abrasive waterjets are reported. It could be shown that
MCSD-orifices in well designed waterjet cutting heads are extremely resistant
to abrasives as well as to foreign particles and other impurities in water. As a result,
very good waterjet quality and constant volume flow, necessary to insure consistent
cutting quality, can be maintained for long operating times without orifice change
in the cutting head. Furthermore water produced employing a reduced water
treatment is sufficient for WJ-cutting operations. All this considerably reduces
cutting costs compared to using cutting heads with sapphire or natural diamond
equipped orifices as explained in this article by K.C. Heiniger and M. Wälti.

W hen water is pressurised up to

6,000 bar and forced through a
tiny opening, it can cut a variety of soft
materials including food, paper, rubber
and foam. When small amounts of
abrasive particles, such as garnet, are
mixed into the jet stream, the resulting
abrasive waterjet can cut virtually any hard
material such as metal, composites, stone
and glass. High pressure waterjets can
also be used to accomplish a variety of
industrial surface preparation applications,
including cleaning ship hulls or remove
hard coatings from surfaces.
Waterjet cutting has been a specialty
technology used in a wide variety of
industries since about 1970. Today no other
superior to conventional metal cutting
machines. Additionally, in comparison to
laser cutting or wire EDM (electro-discharge
machining) the work piece remains cold
during the cutting process which is Fig 1 Abrasive waterjet cutting
beneficial for many applications. [1 - 4]
According to a report from a market High pressure water
research company, abrasive waterjetting
is the fastest growing segment of the
Waterjet orifice
machine tool industry.
The abrasive waterjet (AWJ) cutting Mixing chamber
technique is based on accelerating small
Air/abrasive
diameter abrasive particles (~0.05 to inlet port
0.2 mm in diameter) through a high Mixing chamber
velocity waterjet to remove material.
Water is pumped to high pressures
(300 to 400 MPa) and a high-speed waterjet Ring

tool cuts or machines a greater variety of
materials, ranging from glass and stones to
composites and metals. Abrasive waterjet
cutting systems cut virtually any shape
up to metal thicknesses of 200 mm and
even large numbers of different material-
layers (Fig 1). In comparison to the laser
machining process, waterjet machining
is less expensive, and it is functionally
(770 to 880 m/s) is formed by a special
sapphire or diamond orifice of diameter
of 0.1 to 0.4 mm. Downstream from the Mixing tube
orifice, abrasive particles are added in a
mixing chamber and accelerated by
momentum exchange with the waterjet in
a mixing tube (focusing tube). From there Abrasive waterjet
they are directed at very high velocities
(500 to 700 m/s) to the workpiece (Fig 2). Fig 2 Cutting head for abrasive waterjet cutting

INDUSTRIAL DIAMOND REVIEW 4/05 39

Diamond technology
Fig 3 Waterjet orifice with
atomising and coherent jets
Besides achieving higher precision
current developments are focused
primarily on enhancing the profitability of
the cutting process. The biggest problem
during abrasive waterjet cutting is tool-
wear caused by the high-velocity abrasives
reducing drastically the lifetime of the
involved components (waterjet orifice,
mixing chamber, mixing tube) and thus
the profitability of the whole process.
Orifices for waterjetting
Waterjet orifices have to create coherent
waterjets which do not diverge in the
cutting head (Fig 3). Such behaviour can
only be assured through sharp edged
orifices, where the ratio of edge radius
to the orifice diameter must remain within
in a well specified range during the whole
lifetime of the orifice. Total symmetry of
the edge also has to be assured (Fig 4).
It can easily be understood from Fig 2
that not adjusted or diverging waterjets
inhibit an effective acceleration of
abrasive particles in the mixing tube.
Even more, the lifetime of the mixing
tubes can thus drastically be reduced.
There are only a few suppliers
worldwide who possess the skill to
manufacture such orifices from hard
materials such as sapphires, rubies or
diamonds. MVT is one of these having a
large world market share.
Shutting off the valve at the inlet of the
high-pressure chamber (collimation tube)
to stop the cutting produces a strong
pressure wave, which travels upstream
at the velocity of sound. This process
enables the transport of abrasives through
the orifice bore into the pressurised inlet
chamber. During normal cutting cycles
abrasives are accumulated here and tend
to destroy the orifice during normal
operation. This process seems to be most
likely the cause for broken orifices. If an
orifice brakes during a cutting operation
40
Fig 4 SEM-pictures of waterjet orifices
there is the danger that the work piece
could be destroyed. Therefore in many
workshops ‘normal’ orifices are replaced
following statistical probability (typically
after ~50h) before their lifetime is really
exceeded. It is obvious that this reduces
the profitability of the manufacturing
process drastically.
Orifice materials
To ensure constant jet conditions during
the whole lifetime hard materials like
sapphire, rubies or diamonds have been
used for a number of years. The majority
of workshops use sapphires/rubies
because they are cheap and – for the
specialised suppliers – relatively easy to
craft. But they suffer from short lifetimes,
although the materials are normally
selected with the best crystalline
orientation. Many hundred thousands of
such waterjet orifices are manufactured
worldwide. For waterjetting in the food
processing or paper industry (mostly
pure waterjetting) and the automotive
industry e.g. where waterjetting machining
centres are working around-the-clock,
there is a strong need to use materials
with higher lifetimes.
Natural diamonds (industrial diamonds)
have been processed to waterjet orifices
by a few suppliers for some time. The
prices are extremely high compared with
sapphires (typically factor > 20). Lifetimes
are usually high but they cannot be
predicted because of randomly distributed
cracks which are inherent for natural
diamonds. Besides it is very difficult to
select the best crystalline orientation for
the specific stress conditions of waterjet
orifices. For normal operations the risk is
too large in relation to the high prices.
Therefore, there is no acceptance in the
waterjetting industry and the majority of
the waterjet machines worldwide are
not equipped with such diamond orifices.
Diamond/Diamond
bonding
Diamond
Cobalt
25 µm
Fig 5 Possible PCD-structures (Element Six)
Recently some orifice suppliers started
to sell orifices from polycrystalline
diamonds (PCD) which are moderate in
price with a relatively long lifetime. But
they suffer from the same problem as
natural diamonds: because of imperfect
material structure caused by the sintering
process (Fig 5) the spread of possible
lifetimes is (too) large as well. There is no
optimal orientation of the crystalline
structure, which is responsible for the
reduced physical properties in comparison
with monocrystalline diamond. Thus,
these orifices are not suited for the special
conditions in abrasive waterjetting.
Novel solution: monocrystalline
synthetic diamonds (MCSD)
Two years ago Element Six BV, Cuijk (NL)
contacted the LTFE and MVT with the offer
to cooperate in the development of new
waterjet orifices using monocrystalline
synthetic diamond. (MCSD). MCSD from
Element Six has the excellent feature of
very high purity, which inhibits crack
initiation in the material and leads to very
high transverse rupture strengths (Table 1,
Fig 6) which are of high relevance for the
lifetime of orifices in harsh waterjetting
environments. Of course, the crystal
orientation can be optimally selected for
the stresses in the waterjet orifices. This
results in a number of important advantages
in comparison with waterjet orifices from
sapphires and from natural diamond.
INDUSTRIAL DIAMOND REVIEW 4/05
 Diamond technology

Test results As a result, very good waterjet quality Conclusion

In this paper, we present the result of this
development after intensive testing in
the laboratory as well as in a normal
industrial environment:
◆ 1,000h, 15,000 cycle pure water
long-term test at the LTFE (Fig 7a),
using non-specially filtered water
◆ 100,000 cycle test with abrasives at
the LTFE (Fig 7b)
◆ ~250 orifices in (normal) industrial
waterjetting environment each
running without problems during
many hundred to even thousands
of hours
The available test results show that the
new waterjet orifices are extremely resistant
to abrasives as well as to foreign particles
and other impurities in water. Even small
metal chips could not destroy the orifice.
and constant volume flow, necessary
to insure consistent cutting quality, can
be maintained for long operating times
without orifice change in the cutting
head. Additionally it can be observed
that the lifetime of mixing tubes which
are exposed to strong erosion through
the abrasives is enhanced by about 20
to 30% using MCSD-waterjet orifices
because the waterjets are better aligned
during the whole life of the focusing
tubes.
Up to now it has been shown that a real
breakthrough could be achieved using
MCSD orifices in waterjetting applications.
The lifetimes could be improved by factors
between 15 and 20 (up to now) compared
with sapphire orifices normally used in
the waterjetting environment.
Up to now not a single orifice has been
destroyed during waterjetting operation
(pure water and AWJ)!
By tests in the laboratory and in a normal
industrial environment it could be shown
that monocrystalline synthetic diamond
orifices in well designed waterjet cutting
heads are extremely resistant to abrasives
as well as to foreign particles and other
impurities in water. As a result, very good
and constant waterjet quality as well as
constant volume flow, necessary to insure
consistent cutting quality, can be maintained
for very long operating times without orifice
change in the cutting head. Furthermore
water produced employing a reduced water
treatment is sufficient for WJ-cutting
operations. All this considerably reduces
cutting costs compared to using cutting
heads with sapphire, natural diamond or
polycrystalline diamond equipped orifices.
It can be stated that the orifice problem
could be solved with novel MCSD-
waterjet orifices. ◆

Sapphire MCSD Advantages of synthetic diamond References

over natural diamond [1] D.A. Summers, Waterjetting
Density Technology, Spon, 1995, ISBN:
4 3.5
(10 3 kg/m 3 )
◆ Exceeds performance of 0419196609
Hardness
22 50÷100
natural diamond in lifetime [2] C. Olsen, Waterjet Web reference,
(GPa) http://www.waterjets.org/index.html
◆ Contains no cracks and [3] Omax Corp., A Comprehensive
Fracture toughness
(GPa)
0.4 0.5 ÷0.7 contamination and therefore Overview of Abrasive Jet Technology,
is showing a reliable/predictable http://omax.com/about_tech_101.html
Young’s modulus behaviour from a lifetime point [4] Flow Corp., How Waterjet Cutting Works,
440 ~1050
(GPa) http://www.flowcorp.com/waterjet-
of view resources.cfm?id=335
Poisson’s ratio
0.29 0.07
(-) ◆ Reproducible material quality
Tensile strength (GPa)
is secured within the production
0.2 1÷10 Acknowledgements
(orientation dependent) process
The authors would like to acknowledge the
Transverse rupture
small 2.9
◆ Secured availability due to the assistance of Element Six which originally
strength (GPa) proposed to start the development of the
industrialised process of synthetic novel waterjet orifice described in this
Compressive strength diamond production (PVD) paper using their MCSD-materials.
2.1 9
(GPa) The authors would also like to thank the
◆ Prices of synthetic material will Innovation Promotion Agency (CTI) of the
Thermal conductivity
40 ~2,000 decrease over time when volumes Swiss Federal Office for Professional
(W/mK)
increase (natural diamond prices Education and Technology for supporting
Thermal exp. coeff. this project (No. 7495.1)
6.2 1.05 are only going up)
(µm/m) This article is based on a paper presented
at the 1st International Industrial Diamond
Table 1 Physical properties of sapphire – MCSD Fig 6 Advantages of MCSD over natural diamond Conference held in Barcelona, Spain in
October 2005 and is printed with kind
permission of Diamond At Work Ltd.

Authors
Prof. K.C. Heiniger, head of Laboratory
for Thermal and Fluid Engineering (LTFE),
University of Applied Sciences, North
western Switzerland, CH-5210 Windisch,
Switzerland.
kurt.heiniger@fh-aargau.ch
M. Wälti,
CEO MVT Micro-Verschleiss-Technik AG,
CH-2560 Nidau, Switzerland.
Figs 7a/7b SEM-photographs after laboratory long term tests martin.waelti@mvt.ch

INDUSTRIAL DIAMOND REVIEW 4/05 41