Good machines can come in small packages

If you were asked to imagine a machine tool, chances are you’d conjure up a hefty beast with a hefty price tag. You may be surprised to discover, therefore, that there are relatively small, budget-friendly machines on the market that can meet the requirements of certain industrial cutting applications.

Take the ProtoMAX, an abrasive waterjet machine built by OMAX Corp., Kent, Wash. With a footprint of about 41½”×39½”, the machine weighs approximately 750 lbs. with water in the tank.

The ProtoMAX waterjet machine may be small, but it can cut virtually any material. Image courtesy of OMAX

Compare that with OMAX’s next smallest waterjet cutter, which has a footprint of about 5’3″×12′, not including the pump, which covers another 4’×5′, according to Stephen Bruner, the company’s vice president of marketing.

Besides consuming less space, the ProtoMAX is built on casters, which allow the compact unit to be rolled from one location to another.

This mobility is helpful during both installation and reconfiguration of a machine shop. “Instead of requiring a forklift and a bunch of people, installation of the ProtoMAX can be a one-man operation,” Bruner said.

In addition to being easy on shop personnel, the ProtoMAX is easy on shop budgets. Whereas standard smaller waterjets typically start in the $70,000 to $75,000 range, Bruner noted, the ProtoMAX is priced at $19,950, including shipping, in the U.S.

According to Bruner, the ProtoMAX can cut any material up to about 1″ thick. As its name suggests, prototyping is one of the machine’s main applications. But it’s also used by some businesses in a production capacity, he added.

In production environments, however, the ProtoMAX has significant limitations. The cutting area measures just 12″ square, and the machine allows only a little over an inch of adjustment in the Z-axis direction. By contrast, Bruner said, an industrial-size waterjet may have a Z stroke of as much as 12″.