AS A MECHANICAL engineering student,
I was drawn to mechanical design and
manufacturing. I was part of a team that
built open-wheeled racecars where we
did a lot of work with sheet metal.
Unfortunately, Penn Engineering
did not have a waterjet cutter because
they’re so big and expensive. Since
Penn didn’t have one, the students built
a small one as a senior design project in
2012 with a team of five. The goal was
to build a small, affordable waterjet for
the university.
Three years later in 2 015, I partnered
back up with my co-founder and CTO Matt
Nowicki, and we quit our jobs and starteda company, Wazer. That started our prod-
uct development. After a couple months
of development at HAX accelerator, Wazer
created the first desktop waterjet and
launched it on Kickstarter in 2 016, where it
raised $1.3 million in presales. About 1 ,300
backers pledged $1.3 million to help bring
this project to life. Our future customers
pledged money up front to support us and
be the first ones to get a machine.
Fast forward to 2 019, and we are in
production of the first desktop waterjet—
a digital manufacturing device—that can
cut parts out of any material, primarily
metal, but also glass, stone, composites
and thermoplastics (Figure 1 ).We have a corporate headquarters in
Brooklyn, New York, that is also a pro-
duction facility where we assemble, test
and ship every machine. As of early 2 019,
we have completed shipping machines to
all of our initial Kickstarter backers and
are now filling orders we have received
over the past two years.
It took a long time to get to production
with three years of development, includ-
ing a year of product development and
two years of design for manufacturing
and production, but we are now building
and shipping machines every day to a
variety of customers, including industri-
al, education and professional artisans.Cost-effective cutting
For $7,500, you can have a compact and
contained desktop machine that can
make precision parts in any material.
Before Wazer, traditional, entry-level
waterjets and other methods to cut preci-
sion sheet metal cost more than $100,000
and were too large and messy to fit in
most workshops.
Our equipment enables professional-
grade results at the desktop level in any
workshop. The unit is fully enclosed,
making it safe, clean and quiet to operate.
The big waterjets work at very high
pressures, more than 6 0,000 psi, and
require specialty components. What we
have done is leverage hydraulic compo-
nents from other industries and com-by Nisan Lerea, WazerHow to build a digital-manufacturing device
The first desktop waterjet highlights many of the business, engineering and manufacturing steps
needed to be an OEM38 / May 2019 / ControlDesign.commotion control
The first desktop waterjet
Figure 1: The first desktop waterjet—a digital manufacturing
device—can cut parts out of any material including metal,
glass, stone, composites and thermoplastics.(Source:Wazer)CD1905_38_41_CaseStudy.indd 38 4/29/19 12:26 PM