Discussion in this thread about removing water from a hypothetical undersea base got me thinking about very high pressure liquid systems. I realize that the inner liquid portions of planetary bodies are under immense pressure, I’m not interested in that. I’m looking for man-made processes - engineered systems. I found a pump built for a waterjet cutting machine capable of pushing water at 60,000 psi. I tried searching for the highest pressure pump in the world, but my google-fu is not up to the task. So I turn to the teeming masses: what are some ultra-high pressure industrial processes? I’m talking about 40,000 psi plus. And since this is the lightning round, you get four extra points if you can show me the highest pressure pump in the world.
One process for making of synthetic diamonds involves extremely high pressures, on the order of 1.4 million psi. These aren’t the pressures observed in hydraulic fluid, though; it’s pressures generated on solid materials contained between anvil surfaces. The hydraulic systems used to generate those pressures probably run at much more reasonable pressures.
Modern diesel fuel injection systems commonly operate at pressures from 20,000-30,000 psi in order to achieve optimal atomization and distribution of fuel in the combustion chamber.
As you’ve found, industrial water jet machines run at very high pressures. We have one in our machine shop that runs at close to 60,000 psi. According to Wikipedia, there are models that run at pressures as high as 100,000 psi. These guys have one rated for 90 ksi.