Insulations

Main applications for glass & rockwool production

Waterjet cutting is used in the production lines of glass and rockwool as a technology alternative to rotating saw discs. The idea is to cut the material after it exits the curing oven. The traditional way of doing this was the application of rotating disc blades, which has the advantage of simplicity, and results in a nice cutting edge, but has also significant economical and technical disadvantages:

• Discs require frequent resharpening
  
• The discs have a width of 5 mm. If you consider the fact that you are cutting 24/7/365, you are wasting large quantities of material
  
• Creation of ambient dust which must be removed from the production hall.

Advantages of waterjet cutting over traditional methods of stone and rockwool cutting:

• Better linear accuracy of cut
  
• Less waste of material (waterjet has a max. diameter of 0,25mm)
  
• No need for dust suction (Large dust collectors are not required, this reducing the investment cost)
  
• No need of resharpening – the waterjet is always sharp.

Rock or glass wool material typically comes in widths of 1.200mm and must be edge trimmed and cross-cutted. Depth of material is between 22mm-318mm and density can go up to 175 kg/m2. The wool is sometimes also covered with pitch (asphaltic thin cover) on one side. Usually this involves 6 cutting heads.