Punching vs. waterjet cutting

Punching vs. waterjet cutting

Today there are more cutting methods than ever before. While sawing was once the primary option for cutting industrial materials, there are nearly a dozen viable options today.

To ensure project accuracy, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, any cutting method envisaged for a particular part should play an important role in the design phase.

Two of the most common cutting methods of the Dr. Dietrich Mueller GmbH are punching and water jet cutting. Both manufacturing processes each have advantages that are suitable for specific requirements.

waterjet cutting

Waterjet cutting, as the name suggests, uses jets of water under high pressure to cut soft materials. If harder materials such as metals or plastics are to be cut, an abrasive material can be added to the water so that the water jet can also cut these materials. This method offers several advantages over punching and other cutting methods:

• clean cuts
• low heat development
• tolerances

Advantage of waterjet cutting: clean cuts

These advantages primarily include the clean cuts that result from the process.

Many companies consider waterjet cuts to be “finished cuts,” aesthetically acceptable cuts that do not require secondary finishing processes. This is important for applications where financial or time constraints are an issue - finishing processes add time and money to your project.

Advantage of waterjet cutting: Low heat

The second major benefit of waterjet cutting is that it generates very little heat and transfers even less to the material being cut. This is important for several reasons:

It enables waterjet cutting of fusible and combustible materials - like plastics, laminates, acrylics and more - that cannot be cut with laser or plasma. It prevents the release of heat-related toxins in the workplace. There are no heat affected zones on the cut parts, eliminating the need for a secondary post-processing process often required with laser or plasma cut parts

Advantage of waterjet cutting: Tolerances

Waterjet cutters are able to hold tighter tolerances in their cuts because the cutters are controlled by high-precision software. In addition, no mechanical stresses are generated in the material to be cut with this method, which means that tolerance losses due to distortion are avoided.

When manufacturing parts from galvanically insulating materials, it must be taken into account that the manufactured parts often need to be dried. We do this in an oven under a slight vacuum.

punching or stamping

Stamping is a very common cutting technique that involves stamping material with a tool to create the desired part. Stamping has many advantages:

• Speed
• uniformity
• Costs

Advantage of punching: speed

Most stamping processes, including rotary stamping, steel rule stamping, and progressive stamping, are continuous processes. With this method, rolls of material are continuously fed into the system and punched parts are continuously output.

In particular, simple parts can be manufactured at high speed. For example, simple seals can be completed in one second with a single stroke. More complicated parts can be made quickly with a progressive die.

Punching Advantage: Uniformity

Stamping produces parts with a high degree of uniformity, which is particularly important for large quantities of identical components. Stamping out a part in one quick motion eliminates deviations that can occur in processes that cut a shape around the edges. Tool and die fatigue can occur, nonetheless, a stamping specialist knows their machines and replaces affected components long before they can affect the quality of the elements.

Stamp Advantage: Cost

Stamping is a relatively inexpensive method of manufacturing parts due to its ability to produce very large quantities with high consistency. The high output reduces time and thus labor costs, and uniform products reduce losses in quality assurance.

the dr Dietrich Müller GmbH offers both manufacturing processes for the production of precision parts made of electrical insulating materials, thermally conductive products, sealing materials and technical foils.

Prices for waterjet parts and stamped parts

Prices for parts made from different materials can be calculated using our Digital Fabricator tool.