waterjets

e.heritage@... wrote:

> I think something
> even better than EDM for reading about has to be ultra-high pressure
> machining. Those things sure put out something! 40,000 psi!

or to 60,000 psi. I understand effort is being made to try to increase that to
80,000 psi for commercial use.

> They had them firing glass
> bead media for cleaning the muck off ships hulls (Even out of dry dock and
> underwater. That'd be an interesting job). Then they fed this sort of hose
> firing this water / media mix down a sewer pipe line that had about an 1 - 2
> inch of stuff stuck to the walls in a video. The pressure blow that much
> crap off it look better than metal straight off the roll, it was soooo
> shiney. How do they actually get the water to such a high pressure?

The device is called an 'intensifier'. I don't know how it works, I think
it is by pistons.

> Because
> the pumps look pretty small, are they using screw compressors or pistons?
> And more to the point, how do you hold them when they're firing something
> with over 200 times more force than yourself?

I also understand that they only use a gallon or a bit more per minute, so theres
not much total force.

Doug