Common Methods Of Metal Cutting

By Author: Keiton engineering
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Metal cutting is a collection of processes where the material is brought to a required geometry by removing excess material by using various kinds of tools in order to leave a finished part that meets requirements. As a result, there are two products, the finished part and the waste product. The waste material is often the chips or swarf. There are some metal cutting processes that use shearing forces in order to separate the material. There are also some methods that use other forces like abrasion or thermal energy. Hence, some common methods of metal cutting are listed below:

Water Jet Cutting Method

In this method, a high velocity stream of water is used to cut through the metal. As a matter of fact, water contains abrasive particles so as to wear the material and can travel in a narrow jet at high speeds of around 2000 feet/sec. Due to this; the water jet is applied at very high pressure to the material at the cut location and rapidly erodes the metal. In fact, the position of the water jet is usually computer controlled so as to follow the desired cutting path. By using a water ...
... jet cutting method, nearly 2D shape out of metal can be cut. The width may range between 0.002 and 0.06 inches resulting in good quality edges. With this method, no burrs are formed, and moreover secondary finishing is not required at all.

Laser Beam Cutting

Under this method, a high powered laser is used to cut the metal. There is a series of mirrors and lenses that direct and a high energy beam of light are focused onto the surface of the metal sheet from where it is to be cut in the desired shape. When the beam comes in contact with the surface of the metal, the energy of the beam melts and vaporizes the metal underneath. If there is any molten metal or vapor, then it is blown out by a stream of gas. This whole process is carried out on laser cutting machines that comprises of a power supply, laser system, focusing lens, nozzle, pressurized gas, mirrors and a table. Laser cutting can be easily performed on both ferrous and non ferrous. This method has various advantages like multiple sheets can be cut at once resulting in cost reduction, burrs are minimal.

Plasma Cutting

In plasma cutting, a focused stream of ionized gas or plasma is used to cut the metal sheet. Plasma has extremely high speed and lows at exceptionally high temperatures and is directed towards the cutting location with the help of a nozzle. When the plasma comes in contact with the surface, the metal melts into molten state. Molten metal can be blown away by ionized gas from the nozzle. However, the feature of plasma cutting varies slightly from the laser beam cutting. As both methods are able to cut nearly any 2D shape of metal sheet, but the plasma cutting method can not achieve the same level of accuracy and finish. In fact, plasma cutting is capable of cutting through far thicker sheets as compared to laser cutting.
 
 
About the Author:
Keiton Engineering specializes in flame cutting and surface grinding. Keiton Engineering and Rapid Profiling offer a comprehensive flame cutting service to all industries in most material specification, ranging from 5mm to 800mm. All flame cutting machines are CNC controlled which gives greater accuracy and quality profiled blanks. We provide various services like steel profiling, metal cutting, lumsden grinding, fabrications, edge machining and cnc machining.