Slate tiles have been an excellent flooring option for outdoor walkways and paths, washrooms, and stairways, among others. One of the major reasons behind their popularity is, slate tile flooring will perfectly blend with any décor. In addition, they are available in a range of fine grain and rich palette of colors, which add to the beauty of rustic, contemporary, modern or traditional settings.
Slate tiles can be cut to desired shape to create alluring flooring inlay patterns. Being a hard material, normal tile cutter would not really helpful to make desired cuts. Also, traditional cutting technique like plasma cutting may leave deformed edges, which in turn call for many secondary finishing operations. So, how can you cut slate tiles to desired specifics for creating enticing flooring inlays? The answer is right here!
Why Choose Water Jet to Cutting Slate Tiles?
With speed, power, and efficacy, water jet cutting technique helps cut slate tiles to perfection. The technology is popular due to its easy programming and the ability to cut virtually any material of varying thicknesses.
The three other important features that justify the use of water jet technique to cut slate tiles are:
- Powerful – The water jet machine can cut up to 200mm (8ʺ) thick steel. That shows the potential and capability of the technique. The high velocity coherent stream of water that accelerates at 40,000 to 55,000 psi through the orifice of the machine performs the actual cutting. Very intricate shapes can be cut without damaging the work piece. As per the hardness of the material being cut, an abrasive (preferably silica or sand) can be mixed with the water stream. The addition of an abrasive contributes in powerful cutting with no negligible effects on the material.
- Environmentally Friendly – Like other conventional cutting processes, there is no burning processes involved in water jet cutting. Hence, there are no toxic gases, or fumes generated as by-products. Owing to this feature, waterjet cutting is considered as an eco-friendly cutting method.
- Fast – Easy programing and rapid setup time contribute in speeding up the overall cutting operation. Due to its accuracy and quality of the cut edge, you don’t need to spend time on any other finishing operation.
All these features justify the use of water jet cutting for slate tile cutting. It is the perfect method to cut slate tiles, which is otherwise difficult to machine conventionally. The technique is ideal to turn unique tile designs into enticing flooring inlays.