Why run at 60,000 psi and not higher or lower?
Below 45,000 psi, a waterjet will not cut metal or other hard materials very well. The industry standard is 60,000 psi operating pressure. Pumps are available that are capable of reaching much higher pressure. So why not run at higher pressure? First is safety. The materials and design of 60 KSI components are well understood and commercially available. A failure in a high pressure system at that pressure would be catastrophic and expensive to replace high pressure cylinders. Second is fatigue life. Remember, a waterjet pump must go from a vacuum to full operating pressure several times per minute. It is impossible to prevent fatique forever. Faster cyclic loading and higher pressure cause shorter fatigue life. A KMT brand pump has the longest stroke plunger in the industry (8-inches), so it typically strokes 50 times per minute. Competitive brands have shorter stroke (usually 4 or 8 inches), and so their stroke much faster at over 75 to 100+ strokes per minute. Again, faster stroke me
