Cutting speed & cost, explained
“How fast does it cut?” has no single answer — it depends on what you're cutting and how good the edge needs to be. Here is what actually sets the pace, and an indicative example of how that pace turns into revenue on a stone shop floor.
What drives cutting speed.
Material
Hardness and structure set the pace. Soft aluminum cuts faster than dense granite of the same thickness; brittle porcelain needs a gentler lead-in. The garnet does the work, so harder materials simply take more passes of erosion.
Thickness
The single biggest factor. Speed falls sharply as material gets thicker — the jet has more depth to erode through. A 20 mm slab cuts several times faster than a 100 mm one of the same stone.
Pressure
Higher intensifier pressure means a faster, more energetic jet. Rich intensifiers run up to 600 MPa, which lifts throughput and lets the jet bite into thick, hard material that a lower-pressure pump would crawl through.
Edge quality
You trade speed for finish. A fast separation cut leaves a slightly textured edge; slowing the jet down produces a glass-smooth edge. You pick the quality the part needs — a rough blank can run fast, a visible benchtop edge runs slower.
What one sink cutout can be worth.
Indicative estimate — not a guarantee
The figures below are illustrative, to show how cutting time relates to revenue. Real numbers depend on your material, design, pricing, labor and local market. Use them to think, not to budget.
Take a common job: an undermount sink cutout in a stone countertop. Suppose a shop charges around $150 for that cutout as part of the fabrication, and the waterjet completes it in roughly 8–12 minutes of cut time.
| Revenue for the cutout | ~$150 |
| Waterjet cut time | ~8–12 min |
| Revenue per minute of machine time | ~$15/min |
$150 ÷ 10 minutes ≈ $15 per minute. This is gross revenue per minute of cutting, not profit — it does not subtract garnet, water, power, labor, overhead or the part itself.
That's also why throughput features matter: automatic basin-path generation, real-time altimetry, twin or dual heads, and the higher cut speed a 600 MPa intensifier brings all put more billable minutes through the same machine. Faster, hands-off cutting is what turns a capital purchase into a producing asset.
Want numbers for a real machine?
The configurator builds you a real Rich waterjet — IP68 head and intensifier engineered in-house since 2008 — and returns an actual price. No estimates, no sales call to get it.