A Brief History of the Waterjet

Waterjets are the hottest trend in machine shop cutting.  But did you know that they’ve actually been around in one form or another for the last 80 years?

Engineers have used high-pressure water for hydraulic mining erosion projects since the mid-1800s.  However, it wasn’t until the 1930s that they harnessed narrow jets of water for cutting purposes.

In 1933, a Wisconsin paper company developed a machine that used a diagonally moving low-pressure waterjet to cut a horizontally moving sheet of continuous paper.  Two decades later in 1956, an engineer in Luxembourg developed a method for cutting soft plastic shapes using a thin stream, high-pressure waterjet.

It would be an aviation engineer who would make the first significant breakthrough in waterjet technology in 1958.  He developed a system that used a 100,000 psi pump to deliver a super high pressure liquid jet able to cut steel.

Throughout the 1960s and 70s, other individuals would make other refinements, most of which involved the nozzle head, to this waterjet.  Newer machines were able to cut through a variety of materials including stone, glass and wood and do so with increasing precision.

The next major breakthrough in waterjet technology came in the early 1980s when an Egyptian-born American engineer named Mohamed Hashish developed a commercially viable abrasive waterjet nozzle for cutting.

Abrasive waterjets had been in existence since the mid-1930s, but for wet blasting purposes only.  But Hashish’s refinements, which included the development of a nozzle able to withstand the pressure of an abrasive-water mix, revolutionized the waterjet industry.

Techmoon is proud to say that our company has taken the next leap forward for waterjet technology.  In the US, most high-quality machines cost well over $100,000.  But our abrasive waterjets, which use only the best materials, start at under $65,000.

If you’ve been thinking about a waterjet for your machine shop projects but have held back on purchasing one because of cost, Techmoon can help.  For state-of-the-art, eco-friendly cutting tools built to last, contact us today!