University Of Sunderland cutting it with Waterjet

Waterjet cutting machine enables artists and small companies to produce an unlimited range of profiles in glass or any other material required.

The University of Sunderland's Glass and Ceramics Department, based at the spectacular National Glass Centre, has taken delivery of a waterjet cutting machine to enable artists and small companies to produce an unlimited range of profiles in glass or any other material required.

The National Glass Centre, housed in an award winning GBP 15 million all glass building, is dedicated to the development and promotion of excellence in the art and industry of glass.

EC funding (Single Programme and ERDF) allowed the University to invest in the waterjet machine to benefit self-employed artists and SME's (small to medium enterprises with less than 250 employees) that would not otherwise have access to the unique benefits of a waterjet cutting machine.

The new Waterjet Sweden machine is powered by a KMT Waterjet Systems 30hp pump that provides a continuous operating pressure of 3800 bar/55,000 psi to allow an infinite range of materials to be cut with extreme precision without either distortion or heat affected zones.

Waterjet Sweden has offices in the UK at Boston Spa near Wetherby.

Three technicians have been fully trained by the manufacturer to programme and operate the machine, turning artistic designs into reality.

In addition, Vanessa Cutler, freelance artist and part-time PhD Researcher, is currently using the machine to research and develop her products.

" Waterjet Sweden and KMT were wonderful when we were trying to raise the capital for the machine," said Vanessa.

They were very supportive and even allowed me to carry out research on a machine at their Headquarters in Germany to test the capabilities of the machine.

The university obviously needed something that was unquestionably safe and easy to use as we would be having artists from all over the country wanting to use the facility".

Ellen Dorans, Project Administrator at the University of Sunderland is very positive about the new possibilities opened up by the waterjet system: "Waterjet cutting is predominantly an industrial process, but for artwork it presents quite a different way of working and it is very encouraging how it can be manipulated in an artistic practice.

We originally intended the machine to be used for just cutting glass, but as it is so versatile it has also been used to cut a variety of materials including wood and steel.".

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