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A solution for the production of ice particles and a system to effectively incorporate them into a high-speed water jet for cutting applications.
About
The Abrasive Ice Water Jet (IAWJ) technology is a groundbreaking development within AWJ cutting technologies. The existing AWJ cutting machines use mineral particles at ambient temperature. The mineral abrasive is accelerated in the high-speed water jet to a speed over 600 m/s, depending on the working pressure. The use of ice instead of mineral abrasives is possible at very low temperatures of the ice particles (below -100°C), as only at these temperatures does the ice have the mechanical properties required for effective material removal.
Description of invention
The innovation includes a solution for the production of ice particles and a system to effectively incorporate them into a high-speed water jet for cutting applications. This system enables the production of ice particles with specific sizes, shapes and crystalline structures. These are ideal for processing materials such as metals, polymers and biomaterials that are difficult to process with a pure water jet alone. The system also enables the efficient management, transfer and introduction of these ice particles into the cutting head at temperatures around -190 °C. In addition, the solution enables precise control of various parameters within the cutting head, including the temperature of the high-speed water jet (down to -20 °C), the stability of the mass flow rate, the temperatures of the transport gas and the walls of the cutting head. All aspects of the system are tightly controlled to keep the temperatures of the ice particles at an optimum level, which is crucial for their effective material removal and flowability.
The technology is intended for use in sectors such as the food industry, healthcare, sealant manufacturing and the machining of difficult-to-machine materials such as titanium alloys, which are currently machined using abrasive waterjet cutting, but where inclusions are undesirable.
Key Benefits
The main advantage of using ice instead of mineral abrasives is the cleanliness of the machining process combined with a high cutting performance. Cooled ice particles are superior to soluble abrasives, as ice has a higher hardness and compressive strength at low temperatures. After machining, the ice particles melt and the workpiece remains clean and free of inclusions. The temperatures at the cutting edge are lower, which is important for applications in the food industry and in microtechnology. From an environmental point of view, the amount of solids in waste water is 99 percent lower than with AWJ.
Applications
Potential use cases and/or markets (applications):
Production technologies, Food industry, Sealing technologies, Hard-Alloys-Machining