Waterjet sheet stacking

[Miguel Gonzalez]

It is my understanding that stacking sheets for waterjet cutting can increase the efficiency of the machine significantly. I'm hoping some of you have had experience stacking & cutting sheets, and that you could share your experience, such as if you used clamps (and what kind), adhesives, or whatever it is you used that worked well for this kind of thing.

My shop has not tried stacking yet, but we want to improve on the time efficiency of our water jet. Care to share your stories or tips?

[psiwaterjet]

Almost everything I cut is stacked. It does increase production. What material are you cutting?

[Miguel Gonzalez]

For the most part we cut Aluminum, Mild Steel and Stainless Steel with thicknesses ranging from 12 Guage to 3/8".

We also often get orders for cutting from between 10 guage to 1" thick material, and the occasional galvanized steel job.

[psiwaterjet]

I have stacked steel before. You just have to slow down so you don't get jet lag. If you are cutting 2 sheets of 3/8 you might log it in as a 1" instead of 3/4. You can play with some mild steel and see how it works for you. I think it will depend on your tolerances. Good luck!

[Miguel Gonzalez]

Well, we always clamp down our sheets because the forces of the water stream start shifting the position of the plate, so I just figured that it would be even more important to have really strong clamps for a stacked sheet. Do you guys need to clamp on your waterjet or is it fairly stable even without clamps? Have you ever observed streaks on the pieces being cut on the bottom plate from where the water stream is disrupted at the seam where the two plates meet?

[Verfur]

we do alot of stacking as well but mostly .02 alum stack it up till ist about .375 thick and it runs the best for time and finish. It seems the wost problem is the pierce. we dont stack any thing over 1/8 inch.

[psiwaterjet]

We do use clamps. Most of what we cut is fiberglass, but I do still clamp metal because of the water force. I made a clamp that uses a piece of uni-strut with a hook on one end. I hook it under the frame on the non-operator side of the machine. I use a Kwik-Clamp (bar clamp) to secure the uni-strut to the frame on the operator side of the machine. Most of what I cut is 48" wide and has a warp to it so the clamps help with this as well.

I don't stack more than a few sheets of metal and haven't observed any problem with the stream breaking up between the plates. I would guess that would be affected by how straight your material is.