Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif. -- Have you ever wondered how the remarkably tough armor used on military vehicles such as Humvees or mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles gets cut down to size? What could possibly be used to precisely pierce through the same metal that protects service members from bullets?
Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif., has the answer: water and garnet.
The process is actually quite simple, explained Doug Martin, a water jet operator on MCLB Barstow’s Yermo Annex. The water is filtered, cooled, and then ran through hoses where it is mixed with grit, made up of finely ground garnet. Next, the water is sprayed at pressures up to 90,000 pounds per square inch (PSI) onto whatever material needs to be cut.
“We have been using water to cut through metals here since the late 1990s,” explained Martin. “It can literally cut through any solid material … from a sheet of paper to stainless steel or even brass.”
The designs for the pieces of metal they need to cut are made using computer-aided designs, said Martin.
“We design the shape with the correct measurements and angles on the computer and the water jet machines do the rest,” he added.
One tremendous advantage of cutting with water is the absence of heat in the process. Heat tends to warp metals and cause them to expand. Water, on the other hand, has no effect on the molecular structure of the materials, explained
Martin.
Another great thing about cutting metal using water jet machines is the ability the machines have to cut through more than six inches of material at a time. This gives the shop the ability to not only cut very thick pieces of metal, but to stack metals and cut the exact same design multiple times.
The shop has three machines, giving the operators the ability to cut three different pieces of material at once.
“Using our bigger machine, we are even able to design and cut the entire side of an LAV (light armored vehicle) at one time,” explained Martin. “This saves a lot of time.”
In that same cut, the machine also cuts out where the doors to the vehicle will go, he added.
“It’s a much cheaper method than buying a laser powerful enough to make the same cuts,” said Charlie Hargon, a water jet operator here.
“The speed and precision cannot be beat,” explained Hargon. “They (the machines) are precise to six thousandths of an inch. We have the ability to make even the most detailed of cuts.”
That being said, the shop has found useful ways to recycle the extra metal used to armor the vehicles. Armored washers are just one example. The washers are costly and can take up to eight weeks to receive when they are ordered from an outside source, said Hargon.
“Instead of ordering the washers, we make our own by cutting them out of excess material using the water jets,” Hargon added. “It’s faster, cheaper and lets us know exactly what they’re made out of.”
Because of the shops efficiency, other shops look to them for extra parts, explained the water jet operators. They have various parts that need cutting coming in at a constant rate, and they go through approximately 400 to 500 pounds of grit every day.
“We support the other shops and help them out whenever we can,” Martin said. “We often cut parts for the machine shop because of how fast we can do it using the water jets.”
The machine is amazing, it doesn’t need gas, lasers, or blades that require replacing; it cuts through anything simply using pressurized water and grit, concluded Hargon.
As efficient as the Cost Work Center 243, Water Jet Area is,
the operators are constantly looking for ways to improve. From seeking advanced training to practicing and perfecting their measurements, these employees do whatever they can to get much needed parts out quickly, keeping the Marine Corps mission capable at all times.
Water and grit may not be the first thing that comes to mind when talking about armor piercing capabilities; however, it’s exactly what is used to cut through the very same armor that shields service members from rounds coming down range,