How to cut metal plate

How to cut metal plate

The common metal cutting methods currently available are: flame cutting, laser cutting, wire cutting, shearing machine processing, plasma cutting and water cutting. This article focuses on the differences between the various types of cutting processes that are currently common, for your reference only.

Waterjet cutting 100mm carbon steel

Flame cutting: At present, flame cutting is mainly for the thick plate processing technology, flame cutting for more than 50mm of metal plate is very advantageous, but in the thin plate cutting has its shortcomings. The accuracy of flame cutting is not high, the thin plate cutting heat impact is very large, the deformation is obvious, or even directly melt through, to cut out the ideal workpiece with flame, which has a very high demand on the operator's skills.

Laser cutting: laser cutting equipment began to be for the field of thin plate, 5mm within the thin plate cutting speed and high precision, now high power laser cutting equipment can be carried out within 50mm plate processing, cutting effect, compared to flame cutting more good. At present, laser cutting speed are faster than other similar cutting process, the accuracy can be controlled at ± 0.05mm, but the cost of equipment investment is high, thick plate field cutting effect is not ideal.

Wire cutting: Wire cutting is also called EDM wire cutting. It was developed on the basis of EDM piercing and forming processes. Wire cutting can be performed regardless of the thickness and hardness of the material. Wire cutting can also process complex graphics and is comparable to laser cutting in terms of accuracy. Wire cutting also has certain shortcomings, only processing conductive material, slow cutting efficiency, only a few millimetres per minute, processing can only be processed vertically, can not be processed horizontally, the overall processing method is limited

Shearing machine: shearing machine is borrowed from the movement of the upper blade and the fixed lower blade, using a reasonable gap between the blades, the various thicknesses of the metal plate to apply shear force, so that the plate according to the required size fracture separation. Shearing machine processing accuracy is moderate, compared to flame cutting is very advantageous, processing efficiency is also outstanding. However, shears can only be processed in a straight line, and cannot do arc processing and complex graphics processing.

Plasma cutting machine: plasma cutting is the use of high-temperature plasma arc heat to make the workpiece at the incision of the metal part or partial melting, and through the high-speed plasma momentum to exclude molten metal to form a kerf processing method. Plasma cutting machine cutting thickness, cutting deformation is small, cutting without preheating, equipment costs are relatively low compared to laser cutting machine. However, the plasma cutting machine has a large accuracy error, light pollution is evident during the cutting process and noise and dust pollution cannot be avoided.

Waterjet Cutting Thick Carbon Steel For this project, the customer needed a machine capable of waterjet cutting 100mm carbon steel. Accurately cutting metal of this thickness is not common in the waterjet industry, so HEAD Waterjet reconfigured a waterjet machine, the AB-5axis cutting head, with a high-flow sand control valve, and performed test cuts to meet the project's requirements. Ultra high pressure water cutting, also known as waterjet and water jetting, is a high energy water stream produced by passing ordinary water through multiple stages of pressurisation and then passing it through an extremely fine ruby nozzle to jet cut at a speed of nearly 1,000 metres per second, a cutting method known as ultra high pressure water cutting. Water cutting is universal, almost all materials can be cut, there is no thermal influence on the cut, and the material is cut flat without deformation

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There is no limit to the range of cuts a waterjet can make, including the thickness of the material. In fact, the waterjet can cut any thickness, but the thicker the material being cut, the greater the tolerance. Tight accuracy can be maintained when cutting materials up to 4" and near-net shapes can be achieved when cutting thicker materials.

Optimum edge

The benefits of using the waterjet to cut edges on any material are no different for thicker materials. Because there is no mechanical stress, heat distortion or heat-affected zone (HAZ), you get a smooth edge straight from the waterjet table.

Minimal kerfing

Thanks to the narrow kerf of the waterjet, parts can be closely nested for maximum material utilisation.

Key benefits of cutting thick materials with the waterjet

Increased productivity, fast cutting and high quality parts

Savings in raw material - less scrap

Minimal lateral or vertical forces

No thermal damage

Net cut or near net cut