The water cutting cost mentioned in this article is calculated in China’s yuan (currency unit).
You can replace the currency according to the actual situation, but the calculation method of water cutting cost is the same.

1. Depreciation of water cutting equipment
The average purchase price of the waterjet cutting machine is calculated as 2.75 million yuan.
The normal service life is 10 years.
The actual number of working days per year is 300, the average use time per day is 10 hours, and the accumulated working time in 10 years is 30000 hours.
The average replacement cycle of important parts is 3000 hours, and the cost is about 36500 yuan.
The equipment purchase cost and replacement cost are (275 + 3.65×30000 / 3000 =) 3.115 million yuan.
So, the equipment depreciation is about 103.8 yuan per hour.

2. Cost of consumables
A: Vulnerable parts | Service life /consumption | Unit price (yuan) | Cost per hour (yuan) |
Cylinder | 5000hr | 19872 | 3.97 |
Head | 5000hr | 8567.5 | 1.71 |
Valve components | 2000hr | 287.5 | 0.14 |
Cushion and head | 2000hr | 394.6 | 0.19 |
End part | 2000hr | 607.7 | 0.3 |
Check spring | 2000hr | 23 | 0.01 |
Drain valve assembly | 3000hr | 1939.10 /set | 0.64 |
Hydraulic filter | 3000hr | 1093.6 | 0.36 |
Piston guide ring | 3000hr | 284.5 | 0.09 |
Sand knife tube | >150hr | 3000 | 20 |
Sapphire nozzle | >100hr | 193.5 /piece | 1.94 |
Diamond nozzle | >700hr | 6254.4 /piece | 8.93 |
Nozzle tube | 70 hr | 524.7 | 7.49 |
High-pressure sealing assembly | >700hr | 1166.8 /set | 1.66 |
Needle valve | >70hr | 469.6 /set | 6.71 |
Needle valve seat | 45 hr | 241.9 | 5.37 |
Back pressure ring | 200hr | 133.3 | 0.66 |
Piston seal assembly | >3000hr | 359.6 / set | 0.11 |
Hydraulic seal assembly | >2000hr | 1927.9 /set | 0.96 |
Hydraulic oil | 3000hr | 14500 / time | 4.83 |
B: Materials, water and electricity | Service life /consumption | Unit price (yuan) | Cost per hour (yuan) |
Water | <400kg/hr | 2.75 | 1.1 |
Electric | <25kw/hr | 0.9 | 22.5 |
Abrasive materials | <24kg/hr | 0.7 | 14.4 |
Total: 104.07 yuan/hour
3. Direct expenses

There are 6 operators of the waterjet cutting machine, with a total monthly salary of 1800 yuan / person. In 10 years, it was 1.296 million yuan.
So, the labor cost per machine hour is 43.2 yuan.
4. Total cost
The sum of all the above costs is the waterjet cutting cost, which is:
103.8 + 104.07 + 43.2 = 251.07 yuan / hour.
That is to say, the real waterjet cutting cost per hour is 251.07 yuan or around 35 US dollars.
Due to different material costs around the world, the final price will be different.
However, you can use the water cutting cost calculator mentioned below for online calculation.
Waterjet cost calculator
In order to allow you to calculate the water cutting cost more comprehensively, we have made the following water cutting cost calculator. There are several points that need special attention:
- The currency unit of the calculator is yuan. You can directly enter the amount in other currencies in the calculator without affecting the final calculation result. But you must keep all monetary units unified;
- The cost per hour of different consumables varies with the service life. You can refer to the table data in this article for calculation;
Cost calculation example of abrasive waterjet cutting
The following cost calculation example of abrasive waterjet cutting can also be a reference to calculate the cutting cost of waterjet machine. It’s based on cutting mild steel in 10mm thickness.
