Above: The NX Pro waterjet can be paired with one of three cutting heads, including Dynamic Waterjet XD to enable accurate, fact and flexible 3D cutting
December, 2025- Recycling bottles, cans and paper is generally a simple and straightforward process. Recycling garnet abrasive used in waterjet cutting? Not so much—until now. Flow International Corp. says it is changing the game of waterjet cutting with the release of NX Pro, the industry’s first fully automated abrasive recycling waterjet cutting machine.
“Historically in the waterjet industry, there are people who have recycled abrasive, but no one’s been overly successful at it,” claims Glenn Erichsen, technical software manager for Kent, Washington-based Flow International. “It’s very complicated to recycle abrasive.”
After removing the abrasive from the machine’s catcher tank, he says, a user must sort the good abrasive from the garnet that gets fractured and consumed during cutting, as well as separating out the waste material such as workpiece particles. Machine operators must also ensure the abrasive is dry and dust free before putting it back into the waterjet. “We decided to reimagine what it might look like if we didn’t have to do everything.”
About three and a half years ago, Charlie Wakefield, Flow’s vice president of systems engineering, and his team realized the industry needed to “step up its game” and develop new processes and new technologies to compete with other types of machine tools. “We took a hard look at every interface—software, hardware, operating cost, user experience — and asked how we could do better.”
Developing automated abrasive recycling to recover used abrasive for reuse without manual intervention was one of the four areas Flow focused on when it designed and built the NX Pro next-generation waterjet platform, Wakefield says. “That was based on the overall operating cost of the system, with the abrasive being about half the cost from a day-to-day usage standpoint.”
Flow reports that the NX Pro, which provides an enclosed cutting environment, is the first waterjet with fully automated abrasive recycling.
According to Erichsen, “It’s common knowledge with standard waterjet systems that abrasive needs to be dry to produce high-quality cuts because otherwise clumping and improper abrasive flow occurs.” For the NX Pro waterjet, however, the company chose to eliminate the need for expensive heaters and not dry the abrasive.
“That meant we have to somehow get wet abrasive to the cutting head, and no one has ever looked at that commercially,” Erichsen says. “We found a way to get the abrasive sludge out of the tank, clean it up, keep what’s good, sort out what’s bad and feed it back into the cutting head without the need for drying it.”
The NX Pro pump technology features a variable-frequency drive to deliver 10 to 30 percent energy savings based on operating parameters.
FLUID SAND
Erichsen likens abrasive to sand on the beach. When it is fully wet or fully dry, sand flows. But partially wet abrasive will clump. “We’ve optimized just the right amount of water so that the abrasive still flows and doesn’t clump.”
Wakefield notes that the amount of abrasive that can be recovered depends on the water pressure of the abrasive jet and the material being cut, with a high pressure and hard material creating more abrasive fracturing. “We should be able to recover between 40 and 50 percent, maybe even a little bit more than 50 percent in some cases.”
Flow offers two pump options: a direct-drive pump (55,000 psi, 30 or 50 hp) and an intensifier pump (60,000 to 87,000 psi, 30 to 200 hp). Higher pressure reduces abrasive use, while higher horsepower increases energy consumption. “We help customers find the right balance for their cutting needs,” Erichsen says.
CHARLIE WAKEFIELD,FLOW INTERNATIONAL
Another area Flow focused on when developing the NX Pro waterjet is its “green pump” in which electrical controls were added to the pumps to increase energy efficiency while cutting and at rest. “When the jet is closed or the system isn’t running, we’re not burning electricity when we don’t need to,” says Erichsen.
Flow reports that the NX Pro pump technology features a variable-frequency drive to deliver a 10 to 30 percent energy savings based on operating parameters and extended life components for fewer service intervals.
A third area the company targeted was reducing the noise while cutting and containing water spray and splashes by putting a full enclosure around the machine with integrated LED lighting, panoramic windows and sliding doors for easy access, Wakefield says. The enclosure lowers the noise level for the operator by 10 to 15 decibels.
GET WITH THE PROGRAM
A final focus area was the next-generation FlowCut NX software—a full architectural rebuild—with new CAD kernels, user inputs and user interface.
“Previously, our software was a bit dated,” Wakefield says. “We wanted to not just bring it up to the latest standard, we wanted to improve the user experience and incorporate user feedback into the software.”
NX Pro’s abrasive recycling system cuts abrasive use and disposal by up to 50 percent.
The result, according to Erichsen, is “software that is significantly easier to work with and features better visual indicators, and the highlight from a Flow standpoint is all of our sensors and metering and monitoring is all tied into FlowCut NX to provide the validation that the machine is operating correctly. Then if something isn’t quite right, we have the ability to quickly make adjustments if needed, as well as notify the operator that either maintenance is required, or something needs some kind of attention to be resolved.”
Obviously says Wakefield, “There’s many underlying pieces, but those four—abrasive recycling, pump efficiency, enclosure design and software—are where we focused our brain power to make the next-generation waterjet system for our users.”
Flow International Corp., 800/446-3569, flowcorp.com.
