Upgrading Material Handling and Safety Enclosures in Waterjet CNC Workcells

Moving heavy raw materials into a machining cell and securing large polycarbonate doors are repetitive tasks that require precise, repeatable motion. For WARDJet, a manufacturer of industrial waterjet cutting systems, automating these secondary operations on their A-series and X-series machines meant rethinking their approach to actuation. The engineering team needed to replace the abrupt, open-loop movements of legacy motion control systems. The primary challenge was to implement smooth acceleration, controlled deceleration, and reliable torque-limiting for safety—without introducing the added cost and integration complexity of a conventional servo system setup.

Ben Adams, Senior Electrical Engineer and Engineering Manager, noted that historical approaches to material shuttles and enclosure doors relied on AC induction motors, small DC gear motors, and air cylinders. These legacy setups functioned as unrefined motion systems. DC gear motors would run blindly until striking a proximity switch before abruptly decelerating. Air cylinders, used to push tables in and out, suffered from binding issues and offered no fine control over acceleration.

"Coasting to a stop and coming in gently is a massive upgrade over ramping against the wall," Ben explains. The team needed a simple solution that brought servo-level smoothness and control to these automated axes.

WARDJet selected Teknic’s ClearPath-MC servo systems to drive both the material shuttles and the automated enclosure doors. The ClearPath-MC series combines a motion controller, brushless servo motor and drive, and high-resolution encoder into a single compact unit. It allows engineers to execute pre-programmed motion profiles—such as moving a specific distance based on encoder counts—using simple digital input signals, bypassing the need for running these axes from the main motion controller.

For the material shuttles, this integrated capability provided control over positioning and smooth deceleration. "Customers expect an air cylinder to push a table in and out. When I use a ClearPath motor with a belt, suddenly it's quieter and doesn't have binding issues. I can smoothly accelerate and decelerate," says Ben. ClearPath holds its position without generating excess heat or vibrating, and the closed-loop design ensures that even as mechanical components wear or get dirty over time, the system does not lose performance. "If mechanics get gunked up over time, ClearPath won’t lose steps or skip teeth. It looks 100% better to a customer," Ben adds.

For the automated safety doors, integrated torque limiting proved vital. ClearPath continuously monitors electrical current and can be configured to limit mechanical torque automatically if an unexpected physical obstruction occurs. "If somebody leaves a robot arm stuck in the doors and the machine tries to close them, say they get 75% closed and bang into something, we can easily torque limit the motors," Ben notes. "We can check the high-level feedback and say, 'Whoops, something goofed up. Let's run a homing routine back to the open state.'"

Deploying ClearPath streamlined WARDJet’s production process. The engineering team established baseline performance on the first production machine and from there on out, simply loads these pre-vetted parameters directly into the motors right off the shelf. "Instead of tuning each machine, we settled into a plan where we built one machine, tuned it for performance, and those were the parameters that every machine got," Ben explains.

Through responsive support and robust diagnostic tools, Teknic remains an active partner in WARDJet’s machine development. By upgrading their auxiliary motion with ClearPath, WARDJet continues to elevate the performance, safety, and reliability of their entire waterjet cell experience.

Looking ahead, Ben is excited about Teknic's continued product evolution. The EC series of ClearPath has an integrated EtherCAT network, as well as features like Safe Torque Off (STO) and logic power backup. Ben highlights how well the technology aligns with WARDJet’s core engineering goals: "The package you put together is probably the closest we've gotten to our dream system."