A regular focus of this blog is that water jet cutting is growing in importance and is increasingly eclipsing other options as the favoured technology for creating accurate parts.
And this is a view based not on mere personal opinion or our closeness to the tech. It is backed by research.
A new report has estimated that the global water jet cutting market will grow by around 4% per year and jump from 960 million US dollars to 1,367 million US dollars. This analysis is based on both market trends, global production changes and also the usage of water jet cutting over the past few years.
It is a report that makes for interesting reading and touches upon many trends we know only too well. We appreciate that you might not plan to read dozens of pages on water jet cutting today, so here are a few key points.
We actually believe that this growth figure may be conservative, it is possible that the rate of uptake accelerates. After all, if ever more areas and companies find that they are at a competitive disadvantage by not using water jet cutting then they will have no option but to make the switch.
However, as mentioned in previous posts, it could be that the availability of both machines and also skilled operatives could be what limits growth. We know as a leading UK provider that demand is high – indeed we are contacted by businesses from across Europe looking for reliable water jet cutting – a clear indication of lack of resource where they are based. We are always happy to help, but the global lack of water jet cutting plants could hamper growth. A concern would also be that the growth leads to some starting to offer water jet cutting with poor-quality machines or operators who lack training.
Nevertheless, the future will only see growth for water jet cutting; at home and abroad. The only question is how fast this growth will be.