High-pressure water cleaning is the use of high-speed high-pressure water jets to cut almost all solid materials and to clean various surfaces.
With a high pressure water jet, high pressure water is forced to pass through a small orifice or nozzle bore, where the limitation of the small bore leads to high-pressure water flow.
High-pressure water jetting may use only pure water or water with abrasives, cleaning chemicals or other additives at an operating pressure of from 10,000 to 25,000 psi (70-170 MPa) from a system comprising an engine, a pump, a water reservoir hose, a specialized nozzles and other accessories. Also terms "pure water cleaning" and "grinding".
In many industries (chemical, petrochemical, paper, steel, ...) and building (reconstructions of bridges, WWTPs, buildings, ...) it is replaced or used together with other methods or procedures for preparing the substrate and cleaning. It offers many advantages in regard to performance, flexibility, safety and operational costs, as is briefly described in several examples stated below.
1. Removal of coating and preparing surfaces
High-pressure water jetting also works with minor environmental and health problems and does not damage the substrate surface profile as "extrusion" compared to abrasive blasting.
2. Hydrodemolition
High-pressure water jetting has provided civil engineers and suppliers with an efficient, quick, much more accurate and quiet alternative for cutting and removing concrete, stone and similar hard surfaces.
