Cleveland Oak incorporates a computer controlled water jet saw for many purposes in friction material fabrication as well as cutting many other materials where heat generated during the cutting process can damage the material. We have successfully cut foams, plastics, tempered glass, and ceramics as well as our normal cutting of friction materials.
The water jet, coupled with CAD software, makes it very economical for us to run low volume and prototype products where in the not-too-distant past tooling costs made short production runs cost prohibitive.
One good example of this is the manufacture of gear tooth clutch facings. These look very similar to bicycle sprockets and as such are usually molded or cut on gear hobbing machines making it a very expensive and time consuming process. Utilizing the water jet we can, in most cases, cut a gear facing within a few minutes of receiving or completing a drawing. With this ability we can offer same day service in breakdown situations.
Cleveland Oak can cut gears to 30” diameter with accuracy of +/-.005”. We do production runs of close to 10,000 parts per year as well as run the aforementioned one-offs. There does come a point where, at least using friction material, molding the part can be more economical and we can provide molded parts as well.
Contact us to find out if we can help with your specialized needs, or make it easy on us and give us a more routine project.