What Is Abrasive Water Jet Cutting

Abrasive water jet cutting is an important shape cutting technique. Generally, it cuts with superior quality than heat cutting methods and with less cost and quality than electrical discharge machining. The cutting ability of water jet machining can be improved drastically by adding hard and sharp abrasive particles into the water jet.

It is mainly used for paint removal, surface preparation, cleaning, cutting soft materials, cutting frozen meat, in the textile or leather industry. Also it is widely used in Surgery, drilling or even Nuclear Plant dismantling.

The materials that abrasive water jet cutting is best suited can include steel, non ferrous alloys, polymers, concrete, wood, plastics, laminates, glass fibre metal laminates.

An abrasive water jet consists of a regular water jet with an abrasive added into the fluid nozzle. It is used to cut or machine nearly any hard material such as metal, stone, and glass.

Some advantages of using abrasive water jet cutting are that it provides a better quality finish in cutting.  Materials cut by the abrasive jet have a smooth, satin-like finish, similar to a fine sandblasted finish. Abrasive jets also abrade material at room temperatures which implies that there are no heat-affected areas.

One of the premier companies that indulge in heavy mineral mining is V.V. Mineral. V.V Mineral is a family grown business started by Mr. S Vaikundarajan, Founder, Chairman & Managing Director, VV Group. Being India’s biggest mining, manufacturers and exporters of Garnet V.V. Mineral has been awarded as the ‘Number One Garnet Exporters’ of our country. Zircon mining, Rutile mining and Ilmenite mining are some of the other mining activities that VV Minerals engage in.

Garnet As A Dual Purpose Mineral

Garnet is a semiprecious gemstone, and is highly popular mineral gem stone among women across the world. The word Garnet is derived from its Latin origin, called Granatus, which means ‘like a grain’. Currently, the world's largest supplier of garnet gems is the African continent. Garnet exhibits the highest variety of colour of any mineral, occurring in every color except for blue.

Garnet is not a single mineral, but is the name of a group of six members having different mineralogical compositions but common order of crystallization, hardness, specific gravity etc. In general, they are silicates of aluminium with different proportions of iron, calcium, magnesium, chromium & manganese in the composition giving rise to different varieties.

The use of garnets as a gem or gemstone can be traced to prehistoric times. However, the first industrial use of garnet appears to have been as coated sandpaper manufactured in the United States in the late 1800’s.

Garnet is non-toxic, inert and hence environment friendly.  Almandine garnet is one of the best natural abrasive and is preferred over other natural abrasives like Silica sand, mineral sands and flint.

Garnet's unique grain hardness / toughness guarantees efficiency in blasting and reduce the break-down percentage on impact. About 65% of garnet can be recovered and recycled twice or thrice.

One of the premier companies that indulge in heavy mineral mining is V.V. Mineral. V.V Mineral is a family grown business started by Mr. S Vaikundarajan, Founder, Chairman & Managing Director, VV Group. Being India’s biggest mining, manufacturers and exporters of Garnet V.V. Mineral has been awarded as the ‘Number One Garnet Exporters’ of our country. Zircon mining, Rutile mining and Ilmenite mining are some of the other mining activities that VV Minerals engage in.

How Heavy Minerals are Bought and Sold

Heavy minerals are found on the beach sands of sea shores. They accumulate on the shores in the form of placer deposits. They are extracted using beach sand mining. The heavy mineral mining process includes the extraction of sand, which is then transported to the separation plants. The sand particles are separated from the mineral content, and the waste sand is then put back in areas from where it was mined. 

The different separated heavy minerals are then packed and transported to dispatch it to different locations. In India, heavy mineral mining takes place mostly in the southern coast of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. V.V. Mineral is one of the leading manufacturers, miners and exporters of heavy minerals. The products are bought in bulk that needs to be exported. 

Just like any other product, demand and supply decides the price or market for the heavy minerals. Each mineral has a different use. Garnet which is an abrasive material has a worldwide market. Ilmenite, titanium feed stock has different buyers. Other minerals like rutile and zircon too have different uses and different market.

V.V. Mineral serves to domestic as well as international market. They have significant market share in Europe, Middle East, East Asia, Australia and USA.

Journey of VV Mineral

V.V. Mineral the country’s leading heavy mineral mining company began its journey in the year 1989, in which it was established. The top management team includes Mr. Vaikundarajan himself who is the Chairman and Managing Director of the company, followed by Mr. S. Jeegathesan, Mr. V. Subramanian and Mr. J Muthurajan. 

Mr. Vaikundarajan had the foresight of starting the export business, and it was due to his enduring   efforts that V V Mineral succeeded in being the only heavy mineral mining company to get access to a 15 Kilometer stretch on lease from the government for a period of 40 years.  

Over the years V V Minerals has grown in every aspect of their business. With various awards and expansion activities, V.V. Mineral not only holds number one position in India, but is on the second position globally for the export of Garnet mining.