How to cut stainless steel pipe?
1. High-pressure water jet waterjet water cutting
This new technology uses a water jet of 0.80 to 1.50 mm, with a jet speed of 600 to 800 m / s (speed greater than Mach 2). The water pressure is 3000 to 4000 bar (bar), and the water consumption is only 4 liters per minute.
In order to cut stainless steel with abrasives such as aluminum oxide or silicon carbide, before the jet stream reaches the steel, the abrasive particles are shot into the stream. The modern equipment can cut stainless steel up to 20.0 mm thick. The cutting edge is accurate and the cut surface is clean and smooth.
The heat generated by the cutting action is carried away by the water, and the metal temperature is only 50 to 60°C. This, coupled with the force generated by the jet of water on the metal, it can prevent deformation and improve the cutting accuracy.
2. Step Punching
The process uses circular and triangular punches to punch a row of lapped holes. It is obviously not possible to make a very smooth cut with this process, but by using good tool design and overlapping the cut, the cut edge can be made to meet the requirements of most applications. Hand-held stepper punching machines are typically used to cut thin carbon steel sheets, and if used to cut austenitic stainless steel, a 60 percent increase in force is required. Also, it is necessary to reduce the *large* thickness that the machine can cut. Processing plant machines can punch at least 8 mm stainless steel. Modern machines can also use the combination of shear punching method to produce the required blanks.
3. Guillotine shears
Most processing plants use this hand-operated shears. The edge length of this shear can reach 3m, but if the end of the shear is open, you can use continuous shear to get a longer cut than the shear edge. However, be careful not to cut out the steps.
Due to shear stainless steel power required, so the shear in shear soft steel can cut the thickness in shear ferritic steel to reduce the two line gauge number, shear austenitic stainless steel to reduce the 4 line gauge number. Therefore, a * large shear 2mm soft steel shear in shear ferritic steel to reduce to 1.6mm below and austenitic steel 1.2mm below, and shear blade clearance also need to be reduced accordingly, shear austenitic stainless steel typical shear blade clearance value is 5%.
The vast majority of processing plants know the importance of firmly clamping the steel plate during the shearing process and maintaining the blade in good condition, however, people who are new to stainless steel may not know that in order to prevent contamination of the stainless steel surface, the guillotine shear table or other places in contact with carbon steel need to be placed on the protective pad. If the guillotine shear also shear carbon steel, then, before cutting stainless steel * good to check the blade, remove the carbon steel particles that may adhere and contaminate the stainless steel.
4. Disc shears
The basic working principle of the disc shear and guillotine shear the same, but through the use of disc blades can be continuous shear. Steel mills use a number of blades on two shafts to cut wide steel coils longitudinally. However, a pair of blades can also be used to cut a single straight strip. Some shears in the shearing process can also make the blade to move to one side to cut wedge-shaped blanks, while others can make the tool rotation to cut round blanks.
5. Saws
Although you can use the bow saw and band saw to cut narrow thin plate, but these two saws are usually used to cut thick plates, sections and tubes.
Austenitic stainless steel is cold hardening, friction is strictly prohibited, this is very important and must be noted. Therefore, the saw should be lifted in the return stroke of the saw. High-speed tool steel saw blade in the sawing of thick materials for 8 to 10 teeth per inch, in the sawing of thin plate and pipe for 24 to 32 teeth per inch, motorized cutting austenitic stainless steel, 50 / 80 saws per minute, cutting ferritic stainless steel 100 / 200 saws per minute. In the conventional band saw machine cutting when using sharp teeth low speed and uniform small feed to keep the saw blade cutting.
6. Abrasive wheel cutting
This method uses a high-speed rotating grinding wheel blade to cut steel. The grinding wheel is made of fiber, resin or rubber bonded to the abrasive. In skilled manual operation, the grinding wheel can make fast and accurate cuts, and cut neatly and without burrs. Only straight cuts can be made with grinding wheels, but this is sufficient for most applications.
Grinding wheels are commonly used to cut tubes. Processors also use grinding wheels to grind slots that are not long.
Hand-operated sanders are often used for on-site repairs. However, working with a hand-operated sander generates a lot of dust and "swarf," so dust removal or protection is required. The grinding wheel machine used in the production plant generally has a cooling system, so that both to reduce dust, but also to prevent thermal damage to the material.
7. Laser cutting
The technology uses a laser beam to irradiate the surface of the steel plate when the energy released to make stainless steel melting and evaporation. The laser source generally uses a carbon dioxide laser beam with an operating power of 500 to 2500 watts. The power level is lower than the power required by many home electric heaters, but, through the lens and reflector, the laser beam is gathered in a very small area. The high concentration of energy allows for rapid localized heating and evaporation of stainless steel. In addition, because the energy is so concentrated, only a small amount of heat is transferred to the rest of the steel, causing little or no deformation. The laser can be used to cut complex shapes of blanks very accurately, and the cut blanks do not need to be further processed.
Stainless steel up to 4mm can be cut using laser cutting equipment, and stainless steel 8 to 10mm thick can be cut by adding oxygen to the laser beam, but a thin oxide film will form on the cut surface after oxygen is added to the cut. Cutting * the maximum thickness can be increased to 16mm, but the dimensional error of the cut parts is large.
The price of laser cutting equipment is quite expensive, about $ 150 or more. However, it is still feasible to use this equipment in large production runs because of the reduced cost of subsequent process handling. Because there is no tooling cost, laser cutting machines are also suitable for producing small quantities of various sizes of parts that could not previously be machined. Currently, laser cutting equipment is usually computerized digital control (CNC) devices, which allow the use of telephone lines to receive cutting data from computer-aided design (CAD) workstations.
8. Plasma arc cutting
This method involves passing a gas mixture through a high-frequency arc. The gas can be air, or a mixture of hydrogen, argon and nitrogen. The high-frequency arc makes some gas "decomposition" or ionization, becoming the basic atomic particles, thus producing "plasma". Then, the arc jumps to the stainless steel workpiece, high-pressure gas to blow the plasma from the torch burner, the exit speed of 800 to 1000 meters per second (about Mach 3). In this way, the combination of various gases in the plasma back to normal when the high energy released to produce a high temperature of 2700 ℃. The temperature is almost twice the melting point of stainless steel. Thus, the stainless steel melts quickly and the melted metal is blown away by the ejected high-pressure gas stream. Therefore, the need to use smoke and slag removal equipment.
This method can be used to cut stainless steel from 3.0 to 80.0 mm thick. Cutting surface is oxidized, and due to the characteristics of plasma, the cut is eight-shaped.
9. Manual shear
The use of conventional manual shear, if the cutting edge is sharp, can cut 0.9mm stainless steel. However, due to the short shear length of each shear, so in the shearing process, the steel plate is easy to curl, and the quality of the cut edge is poor. Unless the requirements for the appearance of the cut edge is not high or untidy cut edge on the next process does not hinder (such as not easy to make the weld alignment, etc.), the use of manual shears are not recommended for shearing.
Site: How to cut stainless steel pipe?
This new technology uses a water jet of 0.80 to 1.50 mm, with a jet speed of 600 to 800 m / s (speed greater than Mach 2). The water pressure is 3000 to 4000 bar (bar), and the water consumption is only 4 liters per minute.
In order to cut stainless steel with abrasives such as aluminum oxide or silicon carbide, before the jet stream reaches the steel, the abrasive particles are shot into the stream. The modern equipment can cut stainless steel up to 20.0 mm thick. The cutting edge is accurate and the cut surface is clean and smooth.
The heat generated by the cutting action is carried away by the water, and the metal temperature is only 50 to 60°C. This, coupled with the force generated by the jet of water on the metal, it can prevent deformation and improve the cutting accuracy.
2. Step Punching
The process uses circular and triangular punches to punch a row of lapped holes. It is obviously not possible to make a very smooth cut with this process, but by using good tool design and overlapping the cut, the cut edge can be made to meet the requirements of most applications. Hand-held stepper punching machines are typically used to cut thin carbon steel sheets, and if used to cut austenitic stainless steel, a 60 percent increase in force is required. Also, it is necessary to reduce the *large* thickness that the machine can cut. Processing plant machines can punch at least 8 mm stainless steel. Modern machines can also use the combination of shear punching method to produce the required blanks.
3. Guillotine shears
Most processing plants use this hand-operated shears. The edge length of this shear can reach 3m, but if the end of the shear is open, you can use continuous shear to get a longer cut than the shear edge. However, be careful not to cut out the steps.
Due to shear stainless steel power required, so the shear in shear soft steel can cut the thickness in shear ferritic steel to reduce the two line gauge number, shear austenitic stainless steel to reduce the 4 line gauge number. Therefore, a * large shear 2mm soft steel shear in shear ferritic steel to reduce to 1.6mm below and austenitic steel 1.2mm below, and shear blade clearance also need to be reduced accordingly, shear austenitic stainless steel typical shear blade clearance value is 5%.
The vast majority of processing plants know the importance of firmly clamping the steel plate during the shearing process and maintaining the blade in good condition, however, people who are new to stainless steel may not know that in order to prevent contamination of the stainless steel surface, the guillotine shear table or other places in contact with carbon steel need to be placed on the protective pad. If the guillotine shear also shear carbon steel, then, before cutting stainless steel * good to check the blade, remove the carbon steel particles that may adhere and contaminate the stainless steel.
4. Disc shears
The basic working principle of the disc shear and guillotine shear the same, but through the use of disc blades can be continuous shear. Steel mills use a number of blades on two shafts to cut wide steel coils longitudinally. However, a pair of blades can also be used to cut a single straight strip. Some shears in the shearing process can also make the blade to move to one side to cut wedge-shaped blanks, while others can make the tool rotation to cut round blanks.
5. Saws
Although you can use the bow saw and band saw to cut narrow thin plate, but these two saws are usually used to cut thick plates, sections and tubes.
Austenitic stainless steel is cold hardening, friction is strictly prohibited, this is very important and must be noted. Therefore, the saw should be lifted in the return stroke of the saw. High-speed tool steel saw blade in the sawing of thick materials for 8 to 10 teeth per inch, in the sawing of thin plate and pipe for 24 to 32 teeth per inch, motorized cutting austenitic stainless steel, 50 / 80 saws per minute, cutting ferritic stainless steel 100 / 200 saws per minute. In the conventional band saw machine cutting when using sharp teeth low speed and uniform small feed to keep the saw blade cutting.
6. Abrasive wheel cutting
This method uses a high-speed rotating grinding wheel blade to cut steel. The grinding wheel is made of fiber, resin or rubber bonded to the abrasive. In skilled manual operation, the grinding wheel can make fast and accurate cuts, and cut neatly and without burrs. Only straight cuts can be made with grinding wheels, but this is sufficient for most applications.
Grinding wheels are commonly used to cut tubes. Processors also use grinding wheels to grind slots that are not long.
Hand-operated sanders are often used for on-site repairs. However, working with a hand-operated sander generates a lot of dust and "swarf," so dust removal or protection is required. The grinding wheel machine used in the production plant generally has a cooling system, so that both to reduce dust, but also to prevent thermal damage to the material.
7. Laser cutting
The technology uses a laser beam to irradiate the surface of the steel plate when the energy released to make stainless steel melting and evaporation. The laser source generally uses a carbon dioxide laser beam with an operating power of 500 to 2500 watts. The power level is lower than the power required by many home electric heaters, but, through the lens and reflector, the laser beam is gathered in a very small area. The high concentration of energy allows for rapid localized heating and evaporation of stainless steel. In addition, because the energy is so concentrated, only a small amount of heat is transferred to the rest of the steel, causing little or no deformation. The laser can be used to cut complex shapes of blanks very accurately, and the cut blanks do not need to be further processed.
Stainless steel up to 4mm can be cut using laser cutting equipment, and stainless steel 8 to 10mm thick can be cut by adding oxygen to the laser beam, but a thin oxide film will form on the cut surface after oxygen is added to the cut. Cutting * the maximum thickness can be increased to 16mm, but the dimensional error of the cut parts is large.
The price of laser cutting equipment is quite expensive, about $ 150 or more. However, it is still feasible to use this equipment in large production runs because of the reduced cost of subsequent process handling. Because there is no tooling cost, laser cutting machines are also suitable for producing small quantities of various sizes of parts that could not previously be machined. Currently, laser cutting equipment is usually computerized digital control (CNC) devices, which allow the use of telephone lines to receive cutting data from computer-aided design (CAD) workstations.
8. Plasma arc cutting
This method involves passing a gas mixture through a high-frequency arc. The gas can be air, or a mixture of hydrogen, argon and nitrogen. The high-frequency arc makes some gas "decomposition" or ionization, becoming the basic atomic particles, thus producing "plasma". Then, the arc jumps to the stainless steel workpiece, high-pressure gas to blow the plasma from the torch burner, the exit speed of 800 to 1000 meters per second (about Mach 3). In this way, the combination of various gases in the plasma back to normal when the high energy released to produce a high temperature of 2700 ℃. The temperature is almost twice the melting point of stainless steel. Thus, the stainless steel melts quickly and the melted metal is blown away by the ejected high-pressure gas stream. Therefore, the need to use smoke and slag removal equipment.
This method can be used to cut stainless steel from 3.0 to 80.0 mm thick. Cutting surface is oxidized, and due to the characteristics of plasma, the cut is eight-shaped.
9. Manual shear
The use of conventional manual shear, if the cutting edge is sharp, can cut 0.9mm stainless steel. However, due to the short shear length of each shear, so in the shearing process, the steel plate is easy to curl, and the quality of the cut edge is poor. Unless the requirements for the appearance of the cut edge is not high or untidy cut edge on the next process does not hinder (such as not easy to make the weld alignment, etc.), the use of manual shears are not recommended for shearing.
Site: How to cut stainless steel pipe?