what are the different cutting method

By distinguished from material, metal cutting can be divided into metal material cutting and non-metal material cutting. Usually cutting of non-metallic materials is mainly knife cutting and metal material cutting is divided into flame cutting, plasma cutting, laser cutting, waterjet cutting, etc. In this article, we will going to talk about flame cutting and plasma cutting which are the most commend cutting methods in recent years.

Flame cutting

Flame cutting also know as gas cutting, it is a common method for rough machining of steel plates. Traditionally, acetylene gas is used for cutting. Later, propane is used for gas cutting. Now natural gas cutting has appeared, and it has become the first choice for flame cutting due to its abundant natural gas reserves, low price, and pollution-free characteristics. Natural gas flame cutting generally adds natural gas additives to generate a new type of flame cutting gas. Flame cutting with this gas can make the cutting effect better, improve the cutting efficiency, and reduce the cutting cost. Flame cutting is the oldest thermal cutting method, but when you need to cut low carbon steel plates with a thickness of less than 20 mm, other cutting methods should be used.

Flame cutting uses the high temperature generated during the combustion of iron oxide to cut carbon steel. The design of the flame cutting torch provides sufficient oxygen for burning iron oxide to ensure a good cutting effect.The cost of flame cutting equipment is low and it is the only economical and effective means to cut thick metal plates, but it has its shortcomings in thin plate cutting. Compared with plasma, the heat-affected zone of flame cutting is much larger, and the thermal deformation is relatively large. In order to cut accurately and effectively, the operator needs to have excellent skills to avoid the thermal deformation of the metal plate in time during the cutting process.

Plasma cutting

The full name of plasma cutting is air plasma arc cutting, which is using plasma arc forming high speed，high temperature and high energy plasma flow to heat and melt the metal, and then use certain gas medium to remove the molten metal thereby to form an incision. Due to the concentration of plasma arc energy, the heat-affected zone of the cutting part is small, the thermal deformation is small, and the cutting speed slows down as the thickness of the cutting part increases. Plasma arc can cut all metal materials, especially suitable for high alloy steel and non-ferrous metals which are cannot be cut by flame cutting.

Plasma cutting with different working gases can cut all kinds of metals that are difficult to cut by flame cutting, especially for non-ferrous metals (stainless steel, aluminum, copper, titanium, nickel). Its main advantage is that when cutting thin metal the plasma cutting speed is fast, especially when cutting ordinary carbon steel sheet, the speed can reach 5-6 times that of oxygen cutting method, the cutting surface is smooth, the thermal deformation is small, and the heat-affected zone is less.

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