Fabrication Foundations
Should fire-protection brackets and apparatus panels be laser-cut or waterjet-cut?
Laser is faster and cleaner on mild steel and stainless under about 1 inch — bracket plates, escutcheons, fire-truck body panels. Waterjet wins above that thickness and on anything heat-sensitive: thick aluminum, titanium, gasket material, layered composites. Waterjet leaves no heat-affected zone, so on a part that will later be welded into a fire-rated assembly you avoid pre-existing microcracks at the cut edge.
Look up the underlying term
Definitions, code references, and related terms in the Fire & Fabrication glossary.
Laser/Waterjet CuttingRelated questions
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