Waterjets as Glass Cutting Tools

Clean, precise glass cutting is a common task faced by manufacturers in many industries all across the world. Many important factors come into play when a manufacturer is choosing glass cutting tools for a job, including the thickness, hardness, and consistency of the material and the level of edge precision needed along the material cutline.

Due to its numerous production, environmental, cost, and efficiency benefits, many glass cutting manufacturers are turning to waterjet equipment for their glass cutting tools. Waterjets harness the natural power of erosion to force a highly pressurized water stream through a small orifice for the purpose of clean, precise cutting of a wide variety of materials. Waterjet cutting machinery can be used with or without an added jewel abrasive, such as garnet or diamond, to effectively cut harder and thicker materials like glass. In the case of waterjets as glass cutting tools, an abrasive waterjet is needed to do the job.

Despite glass being a quite brittle material, glass cutting is often performed by abrasive waterjets, particularly for artistic or design purposes. Tempered glass, however, cannot be cut by waterjet machinery. The high level of precision guaranteed by using waterjet equipment provides a huge advantage when using waterjets for glass cutting, glass part fitting, and the inlay of other materials into glass.

Waterjet glass cutting tools are widely applicable across many glass cutting industry sectors, and are favored by those industries which require the cutting of heat-sensitive materials, due to the fact that they leave no Heat-Affected Zone (HAZ). Waterjet glass cutting does not cause the post-cutting material damage that is common to other cutting methods such as laser and plasma cutting, because the waterjet does not vibrate the material when cutting glass, and cuts with highly precise, smooth edges. For these reasons, waterjet glass cutting tools save the time and money that would be needed for secondary finishing on damaged material, and cuts down on material waste.