Influence of Cutting Technology on Properties of the Cut Edges

Abstract

The influence of cutting technologies on the quality, mechanical properties and microstructure of the cut edges of steel is presented. The cutting technologies cover: plasma, laser beam, water jet and oxyfuel flame cutting. During investigation the measurements of perpendicularity tolerance, hardness, mean high of the profile Rz5 and metallographic examination were carry out. The results revealed that the lowest hardness was achieved by water jet cutting, whereas the highest was obtained by plasma cutting under the water surface. The lowest perpendicularity was obtained by plasma cutting under the water surface but the highest was achieved by laser and HD plasma cutting. The conducted experiments revealed moreover that the lowest roughness was achieved by means of plasma cutting over the water surface, whereas the highest by laser beam cutting.