Innovations in Subtractive Manufacturing
This Revolution’s Not Over Yet
Manufacturing has been going through a revolution. Amazingly, digital 3D printers are now producing items from aerospace prototypes to custom dental implants, by adding precise layers of resin material into the right position.
This additive manufacturing is revolutionary for its technology, as well as for making it so widely accessible. The machines are affordable, small, and easy to use for school classrooms, home workshops, and small businesses. Even large companies have lined-up thousands of them in factories to mass-produce new products that could not have been made before.
3D printing and digital CNC equipment dawned a new age of manufacturing. With a click, engineers could convert digital designs into digitally-produced parts, and manufacturers could finally achieve their goals of low-cost customization, efficient low-volume jobs, and in-house production instead of outsourcing.
The revolution continues. The same features of 3D Printers – affordability, small size, ease of use and digital precision – are transforming all corners of factories and workshops. From additive manufacturing to traditional subtractive manufacturing, other technologies have also transformed, including mills, routers and even waterjets.
Waterjets use jets of high-pressure water and abrasive particles to cut precision parts out of materials from metal to stone, plastic to glass. However, waterjets have been extremely expensive, massive-sized, and require skilled operators, which has limited them to large facilities.
Now there are revolutionary waterjets, with advanced technology that is also widely accessible. These are driven by the new affordable WAZER waterjet. WAZER, a new-generation startup, has produced the first waterjet that is affordable, small enough for any shop or factory, and easy to use.
Similar to 3D Printers, WAZER has opened a new world of digital subtractive manufacturing for school classrooms, small businesses, and entrepreneurs and inventors, as well as R&D labs at large companies. They can now click to convert digital ideas into cut-out products. Today, it is not uncommon for WAZER waterjets to share space alongside a 3D Printer, in the same factory or shop.
Here are some manufacturers that are leveraging the WAZER’s advances in subtractive manufacturing to do work that they could never have done before.
Howe Industries
The exacting world of spacecraft propulsion requires Howe industries to prototype repeatedly – sometimes iterating several times a day.
Howe purchased the WAZER because it can cut any material they need, and do it quickly in-house, empowering their engineers to experiment with new designs more quickly.
Primex Plastics
As one of the largest US extruded plastic sheet suppliers, Primex Plastics needs to test its products using ASTM and ISO testing specifications. Unfortunately, traditional methods for preparing test samples would melt or damage the plastic, undermining the test results.
By modernizing their process with a WAZER, they can now cut any material to comply with testing standards.
Supplier of Equipment for NASA’s Moon Landing
The team at this supplier of equipment for NASA’s upcoming moon landing is racing against time.
They chose the WAZER for its plug-and-play operation, which allows anyone on their team to design and fabricate prototype parts with little or no training.