Advanced Profiling Chooses Dialine Cutting Heads
Advanced Profiling Services, a specialist in subcontract waterjet cutting based in West Yorkshire, has specified Dialine heads with replaceable, rather than fixed, diamonds from Accustream. Originally, the company had a sapphire cutting head when it invested in its Flow T11 3,000 x 3,000 Twin Head waterjet cutting table and accompanying intensifier. Although giving good performance, the replaceable sapphire jewel had to be replaced twice a week to maintain cutting consistency and was proving costly.
Advanced Profiling Services decided to move to a new cutting head with an embedded diamond. However, following routine maintenance, debris in the high-pressure system damaged the diamond, ruining the entire cutting head. As the diamond is permanently fixed into the head, the entire head would need to be replaced. Now familiar with the benefits of diamond head cutting technology, the company chose to follow the recommendations of Wightman Stewart. It specified new replacement Dialine heads with replaceable diamonds that could be renewed in the future in the event of any damage to the head, giving a cost saving over cutting heads with Accustream permanently embedded diamonds.
Another main attraction was that the heads could simply be fitted into the existing setup without any need for expensive adapters. Steve Jones of Advanced Profiling Services said: 'The Dialine head really showed the difference when we had to cut some 200mm brass. 'The edge quality was not important but speed was, and we managed to get through it at 6mm per minute, whereas our previous speed was only around 4mm per minute,' he added. A key factor for any waterjet cutting company is downtime and, according to Advanced Profiling, the Dialine heads never have to come off the machine.
This saves a couple of hours per week, added the company. There are two Dialine cutting heads on the Flow machine and, on average, around 65 hours of actual cutting are undertaken per week. It is around 4,000 hours since any head parts have been replaced, and the Dialine still performs well. The nozzle also lasts longer, which is a benefit from a costing point of view, and Advanced Profiling has seen an increase in nozzle life from around 80 hours with the original sapphire head to more than 120 hours with the Dialine, resulting in significant potential savings over a year.
The jet stream is said to be so accurate that very tight tolerance can be achieved for customers. Jones also buys spares parts for his machine through Wightman Stewart. Wightman Stewart is the exclusive UK agent for Accustream. The Dialine cutting head is suitable for retrofitting to all major waterjet cutting systems. It features a removable diamond and mixing chamber and offers a 600-hour cutting time warranty.
Advanced Profiling Services decided to move to a new cutting head with an embedded diamond. However, following routine maintenance, debris in the high-pressure system damaged the diamond, ruining the entire cutting head. As the diamond is permanently fixed into the head, the entire head would need to be replaced. Now familiar with the benefits of diamond head cutting technology, the company chose to follow the recommendations of Wightman Stewart. It specified new replacement Dialine heads with replaceable diamonds that could be renewed in the future in the event of any damage to the head, giving a cost saving over cutting heads with Accustream permanently embedded diamonds.
Another main attraction was that the heads could simply be fitted into the existing setup without any need for expensive adapters. Steve Jones of Advanced Profiling Services said: 'The Dialine head really showed the difference when we had to cut some 200mm brass. 'The edge quality was not important but speed was, and we managed to get through it at 6mm per minute, whereas our previous speed was only around 4mm per minute,' he added. A key factor for any waterjet cutting company is downtime and, according to Advanced Profiling, the Dialine heads never have to come off the machine.
This saves a couple of hours per week, added the company. There are two Dialine cutting heads on the Flow machine and, on average, around 65 hours of actual cutting are undertaken per week. It is around 4,000 hours since any head parts have been replaced, and the Dialine still performs well. The nozzle also lasts longer, which is a benefit from a costing point of view, and Advanced Profiling has seen an increase in nozzle life from around 80 hours with the original sapphire head to more than 120 hours with the Dialine, resulting in significant potential savings over a year.
The jet stream is said to be so accurate that very tight tolerance can be achieved for customers. Jones also buys spares parts for his machine through Wightman Stewart. Wightman Stewart is the exclusive UK agent for Accustream. The Dialine cutting head is suitable for retrofitting to all major waterjet cutting systems. It features a removable diamond and mixing chamber and offers a 600-hour cutting time warranty.
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