Saturday, August 20, 2011

Sheet Metal Cutting

Cutting processes are those in which a piece of sheet metal is separated by applying a great enough force to caused the material to fail. The cut being formed may follow an open path to separate a portion of material or a closed path to cutout and remove that material. The geometric possibilities for a cutting process depend on the technology used, but most are capable of cutting out any 2D shape. Some of the most common sheet metal cutting processes use shearing forces to separate the material. A description of those processes can be found in the previous section. In this section, cutting processes that use other forces, such thermal energy or abrasion, will be discussed. Some common methods of sheet metal cutting that use such forces include the following:

  • Laser beam cutting
  • Plasma cutting
  • Water jet cutting

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