Abstract
High-frequency forced pulsed waterjet technology is an advanced technique that has great potential for many industrial applications. Over the past 10 years, extensive research and development work has been conducted to evaluate this technology specifically for the removal of several types of industrial coatings. More recently, forced-pulsed waterjet machines have been tested in the field to compare their performance, reliability and advantages against the existing ubiquitous ultrahigh pressure continuous waterjet machines.
In this paper three such machines are briefly described, with the emphasis on a retrofit module (RFM) that can be integrated into any existing high-pressure waterjet system to generate forced pulses of water. The specifications of the most recent machine are: Maximum pump pressure = 10,000 psi, maximum flow rate =13 usgpm, and hydraulic power = 75 hp. It is safe to operate and its compact size makes it readily portable. When operated in the pulsedjet mode at 10,000 psi, the instantaneous impact pressure on a target is equivalent to 80,000 psi. Therefore, this machine offers many advantages compared to a conventional continuous (non-pulsed) ultrahigh pressure waterjet machine (_30,000 psi).
The new machine has been tested extensively both in the laboratory and in the field. These tests were on removing unwanted mass (such as chemical growth in pipelines) and hard coatings (paints). The results show that its performance is comparable to, or better than the existing ultrahigh pressure continuous waterjet machines.
