CUTTING TOOLS
Which Non-Chipmaking Cutting Technology to Use? H
ere’s the short answer from Hypertherm (New Brighton, MN). Certain processes will only cut certain types of materials. For example, oxyfuel can only cut carbon steel and plasma can only cut electrically conductive met- als. This means if you need to cut more than just metal, you can immediately cross those two processes off your list and focus instead on laser or waterjet. Lasers can cut metal in addition to nonconductive material such as wood and plastic, while waterjet can cut just about anything. This includes metal, stone, plastics, rubber, foam, and food. Certain processes excel at different thicknesses so it is important to know which thickness of material you need to cut. Generally, laser is used to cut thinner materials, plasma mid-range to thicker materials, and oxyfuel very thick carbon steel. Waterjet can cut across the thickness range. The quality of a cut (or lack thereof) is based on the following properties: angularity, kerf or width, tolerance, size of heat af- fected zone (HAZ), dross, and edge quality. The International Organization for Standardiza- tion (ISO) has developed a classifi cation system for thermal cutting processes, such as oxyfuel, plasma, and laser. That standard—called ISO 9013—takes into account the above properties. Generally, waterjet produces the very best quality, followed by laser, plasma, and fi nally oxyfuel. Of note is that even the best process will provide poor cut quality if used on a CNC table without good motion control capabilities. It’s kind of like
new material just a few years ago, has mostly been applied towards components that require high-strength with less weight. Typically we see it being used in components for landing gear and certain structural parts, but it doesn’t seem to be expanding or replacing titanium 6AL4V applications like we thought it might,” said Standridge. “The investment that we are seeing in machine tool technology, particularly in heavy-duty machines optimized for
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AdvancedManufacturing.org | January 2015
putting a high-performance engine in a bud- get car. When people think of productivity, they most often think of cut speed. While cut speed is important, you also need to consider the time it will take to get your system up and running (this
Plasma cutting for electrically conductive metals.
includes preheating of the metal when discuss- ing oxyfuel); the number of cutting heads the machine can accept; the effi ciency of the nesting software and its ability to maximize cutting time; the ability to unload parts while the system is cutting; and fi nally the ability to eliminate second- ary operations. The productivity of your cutting method will depend on material type and thick- ness. For example, laser is considered a highly productive process when cutting thinner material, but not as productive on thicker material. For more information, please go to http://tinyurl. com/smeforming.
high-strength alloys has been tremendous. These hard metal machines feature high-horsepower, high-torque designs with high-pressure coolant systems built in with extreme fl ow rates up to 50 gpm [189 L/min]. High fl ow rates are very impor- tant to maximize the pressure exiting the tool. In addition, the machining industry is moving toward optimized spindle technology that is less prone to defl ection. Our CAPTO C10 spindle connection, for example, is being offered on a machin-
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