Steel cutting is a fundamental technology for many industries and is at the beginning of the manufacturing process. Preparation of welding edges, e.g. according to ISO 9692, is one of the typical applications. Oxy-fuel makes it easy to prepare V, K, Y and X shapes. Material thickness is not a limitation. Accuracy is guaranteed, the angle is produced as it is set - no divergence - no compensation required. Both sides of the cut can be used, they are parallel with high surface quality, low hardening, low roughness. Quality cuts according to the highest class of ISO 9013. The presentation gives a guide to the metallurgical effect of oxy-fuel cutting on the cut edge. Hardness of the edge, HAZ width, H2 content are important factors for the production of high quality of the following welding technology. Compared to other thermal cutting methods, oxy-fuel cutting does not require any additional reworking.
Martin Roubicek - IHT Automation GmbH & Co. KG
Cutting Hole Penetrations into Vessel Heads Creates Challenges in 3-D
Production of pressure vessels are major industrial applications where cutting 3D objects is an essential part of the process. Dome cutting involves creating openings in the dish ends of the vessel to allow for welding of inlet pipes or trimming of the edges for weld preparation to the vessel. Today, this mostly manual process of measuring the dish ends for hole locations and then hand plasma cutting is not only time consuming and costly but also results in less desirable accuracy and weld preparation edge quality. Welding to the vessel body using V, X, or K-cuts with constant or variable bevels need to be produced with prescribed accuracy to meet welding requirements. Automation of this entire process can now be realized on a gantry style cutting machine utilizing new technologies that can scan (cloud-map) the dish ends and auto-calibrate the plasma torch to produce consistent and accurate results.
John Prevish - United Precision
