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IndustryArena Forum > CNC Plasma, EDM / Waterjet Machines > Waterjet General Topics > Out of the blue poor cutting quality on Flow mach 3, tried everything, out of ideas.
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Posts
    9

    Out of the blue poor cutting quality on Flow mach 3, tried everything, out of ideas.

    Hey guys, We've tried everything to try to resolve a poor cut quality issue. Out of nowhere it started cutting like crap. It's consistently crappy.
    Things that have been tested.

    1) all of the common things... mixing chamber clean & dry, new orifices and mixing tubes, mini hopper garnet feed, etc.
    2) new intensifier assembly installed
    3) new garnet tube/gauge from mini hopper to mixing chamber
    4) water pressure reads normal
    5) replaced the system folder in our software with a backup in case it was software related
    6) swapped solenoids that control garnet plunger (thought maybe it was sticking/partially opening)
    7) tested the actual cutting speed with a stopwatch to make sure the machine wasn't running extra fast for some reason.

    A couple thoughts...
    Maybe a small piece of a hose broke off and is partially blocking the water path. No way of testing the pressure out of the nozzle though.
    It may be my ears playing tricks on me, but it seems to me that when I hit the garnet on, the hissing sound the jet usually makes is not as loud as it should be, almost like not enough garnet is feeding, making the jet sound quieter than normal, however if we pull the hose and let it run out there seems to be plenty of garnet flow. Also, I've tried moving up in garnet disc sizes and it doesn't help the cut quality.

    I'm sure there are more things we tried that I'm forgetting, but any thoughts on what to check would be greatly appreciated.
    Thanks!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2022
    Posts
    1
    Hey what mesh garnet are you using and do you have the right ruby or diamonds in the machine for getting the stream to go to the right diameter if your using wrong mesh hat it that would cause issues 80 mesh is the best one I found and aluminum make sure your lead in is long enough ya need to hear the jet punch through before it starts to cut

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2014
    Posts
    9

    Re: Out of the blue poor cutting quality on Flow mach 3, tried everything, out of ide

    We are using Barton 80, and yes, correct orifice and tubes. We have a 2nd machine as well, same setup, so there is a good side by side comparison, the other machine has no issues. We've partially solved the issue years ago. It looks like the bad cut is due to slop in the machine itself, mostly. We went to grease the bearing blocks on the X-axis and bearings were falling out of two of the blocks. We replaced the guide rails and bearing blocks. This helped slightly. The last time we changed the hydraulic oil, I double checked the oil pressure and it was just at 3,000psi. I believe the manual said to set at 3,100 or 3,200 psi, which I did, and that made some slight improvement as well. After that, it was still not the greatest cut quality, and we also noticed that it seemed to get worse along two edges of, say a large hole, directly across from each other. This also suggests slop in the machine. What we found is that the X-ball screw is sloppy and needs replaced, and the B-motor gear assembly also has excessive slop. All of this together is the cause of the micro oscillations at the nozzle which were making a rough cut. We still haven't replaced the screw or the gear assembly, as it's good enough for now, maybe in the near future I'll tackle replacing those.

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