Waterjet Feedrate Calculator

Cutting speeds for abrasive waterjet by material and thickness. Set your pump pressure, orifice, mixing tube, and abrasive flow — get feedrates at all five quality levels, from separation cuts to precision edges.

40k–94k PSI Q1–Q5 Quality Garnet 80 Mesh CSV Export

Computed starting points, not guarantees. Speeds come from the published Zeng machinability model, calibrated against manufacturer cutting charts, and assume 80-mesh garnet, a sound jet, and proper standoff. Your pump efficiency, nozzle wear, and material batch all matter — run test cuts and use the calibration slider to match your machine.

Select a material above to generate your feedrate table.

How These Numbers Are Calculated

This calculator implements the Zeng machinability model — the published research behind most commercial waterjet speed calculators. Every material has a machinability number (Nm): aluminum at 213 cuts roughly two and a half times faster than stainless at 81.9, glass at 596.8 practically falls apart in front of the jet. Speed then scales with pump pressure (strongly — going from 60k to 90k psi roughly doubles your feedrate), orifice size, and abrasive flow, and inversely with thickness, quality level, and mixing tube diameter.

The five quality levels are the industry-standard trade-off between speed and edge: Q1 is a separation cut — fastest possible, heavy striations, use it when the edge doesn’t matter or gets welded. Q2 is a rough production cut. Q3 is the standard clean cut most parts run at. Q4 tightens tolerance and smooths the lower edge. Q5 is the precision cut — slowest, best finish, minimal taper.

A note on the soft stuff: plastics and rubber carry very high machinability numbers — the jet walks through them — and the values marked approx. vary more by formulation than metals do, so lean on the calibration slider (or a custom Nm) for those. Soft rubber and foam are often cut water-only, with no abrasive at all, faster still than this chart shows. And piercing is the cost nobody sees on a speed chart: the jet has to drill straight down before it can cut sideways, and a stationary pierce through 1″ steel takes about a minute and a half, and even a good dynamic pierce takes forty seconds — so a plate with forty holes carries real money in pierce time before an inch of contour gets cut, and whether your controller ramps or sits still changes that number by better than half. These same quality-level speeds and pierce times are what a quoting system needs to price waterjet work honestly — a Q5 precision part costs multiples of the same part at Q2. PolygonLogix quotes waterjet jobs from feedrates like these plus your real machine time. Export the CSV and you’ve got your starting tech table.

Need to Calculate Cutting Costs?

PolygonLogix uses your actual tech tables to calculate accurate cycle times and per-part costs. Built by a fabricator, for fabricators.

Request Access