News — NanoDiamond

Allfi Waterjet - Sintered Diamonds vs Single-Crystal vs Sapphire - what's best?

Posted by David Wootton on

In the past, orifices used for waterjet cutting and many other high-pressure applications (those over 55,000psi) were a trade-off between life and cost.  If you were OK with changing orifices out more often, sapphires or ruby orifices (all lab-grown) are cheap – most sell between $13.50 and $24.50.  But good sapphires rarely last 100 hours and most are usually worn out or fail in less than 50 hours.  I once watched three 0.005” sapphires in a row fail right out of the box from another supplier – hardly inspiring.  Sapphire is a softer mineral than diamond and is very susceptible...

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