Simplified design and manufacturing of high pressure components for a low-cost water jet intensifier using redesign methodology

Abstract

The water jet machine (WJM) tool is quickly gaining industrial acceptance for cutting nearly all types of materials into complex shapes. However, the high cost of these systems restricts their use by small and medium scale industries. The intensifier is the key unit of the WJM and significantly affects the cost of a WJM. Therefore, the present work aims to develop an intensifier for a low-cost WJM by applying reverse engineering and redesign methodology. The paper particularly concentrates on the design of high pressure components which require shrink-fitted assembly. The use of redesign technique together with the equations derived for this work have simplified the design of shrink-fitted parts and helped to minimise the time taken for the design of WJM intensifier. The design procedure used in this work not only simplifies the design, but also eliminates the re-machining requirement which is generally required to bring the inner radius of the intensifier to its desired size after the shrink-fit.