Waterjet Cutting
Thick plate and titanium, cut cold
A jet of water and abrasive cuts through the sheet cold, so nothing near the edge is heated.
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What it is good at
- Thick stock a laser cannot get through
- Materials that must not see heat — hardened steel, titanium, composites
- Reflective metals that give a laser trouble
What people order
- Thick steel and aluminium plate
- Titanium and hardened parts
- Carbon-fibre and fibreglass panels
- Stone, glass and composite work on the shops set up for it
What to watch out for
- Slower than a laser, and it costs accordingly on thin material
- The edge is slightly tapered and sandblasted rather than polished
- Small internal features are limited by the width of the jet
How the price is worked out
Cutting prices are driven by the sheet, not just your part — one part carries a whole sheet and many parts share one.
Thickness drives the rest: the jet moves slower through thicker stock, so price climbs with plate thickness rather than with outline length alone.
Parts per sheet is estimated from the machine bed and your part’s footprint, not from a real nest, and the shop confirms the final price before any work starts.
Materials
The same sheet catalogue the other cutting processes draw on, and waterjet is the one that will take the thick and the heat-sensitive end of it.
- Mild steel plate
- Stainless 316L
- Aluminium 6061
- Titanium
- Brass
- Copper
- Carbon fibre
- FR4 fibreglass
Availability depends on the workshop quoting your part; the quote shows you which of them can run the material you pick.
What to send us
STL files must be binary. An ASCII STL is refused rather than read incorrectly, so export binary from your CAD package.
SVG is not supported yet — export your outline as a DXF, or a binary STL extruded to the thickness you want it cut from.
Questions we get asked
Drop in your file and see the number
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Price my part