Sheet metal is the common material that is versatilely used for many different architectural and decorative applications, such as wall cladding, pergola, roofing, fencing, ceiling, wall background, etc. Architectural metal sheet not only provides building owners with benefits such as decoration improvements and versatile functionalities, but also has some properties of workability for metal fabricators to process, as stainless steel sheet, aluminium sheet, and other sheet metal come durability and ability to cut and bend easily, and can be flexibly formed to any shapes and styles.
Sheet Metal Cutting For Fabrication
Sheet metal is the common material that is versatilely used for many different architectural and decorative applications, such as wall cladding, pergola, roofing, fencing, ceiling, wall background, etc. Architectural metal sheet not only provides building owners with benefits such as decoration improvements and versatile functionalities, but also has some properties of workability for metal fabricators to process, as sheet metal comes durability and ability to cut and bend easily, and can be flexibly formed to any shapes and styles.
6 Best Ways To Cut Sheet Metal
There are numerous best ways to cut sheet metals. Generally speaking, including cutting with shear and cutting without shear, cutting with shear are referred to as cutting sheet metal by using some machines or facilities with shears, which includes three types, such as shearing, punching, and sawing. As for the sheet metal cutting without shear, which includes laser cutting, plasma cutting, and water jet cutting, it’s the ideal cutting process for fabricating thick metal sheets with high strength, the products processed with such a cutting type provide high precision.
Cutting With Shear
Cutting with shear is a traditional process to cut the metal sheet by a shearing method, which can force the maximum shear strength of the metal. the metal sheet is usually held and supported on a die facility. Meantime, the sheet is cut through once a shear or punch rushes down where the equipment has an opening area.
Cutting sheet metal by shearing is not the same as the other ways of cutting. The cut acts as a rollover at the beginning, the shear force applied to the sheet metal may cause plastic deformation of it. The sheet material can not withstand the shear or punch stress and starts to crack at a slight angle. The metal stretching at the beginning of the shearing will lead to a burr at the sheet bottom.
Shearing
Shearing is a sheet metal cutting method that are less precise than other types, more precisely to say, it’s not suitable for high accurate fabrication process. Shearing process is generally used for large batch operations, and the thinner or softer metal sheets with rough or uneven edges need to be processed with straight line. The shearing facilities available are driven by manual power, electricity, hydraulics or pneumatics, the suitable one depends on the metal type, length and thickness the shear needed. When the cutting blade or punch performs a powerful shearing force on the the sheet metal to cut, the material is laid on the support arms. In order to properly leave space for fracture and plastic deformation occur, keep a small gap of about 5-10 percent of the metal thickness between the shearing blade and the mould.
Punching
Punching is a sheet metal cutting process to perform cutting force on the surface of metal sheets to punch out one or more holes on the metal sheets. The hole can be formed to many geometric shapes such as round, rectangular, triangular, elliptical and any pattern, the size and the number of holes that can be punched out are not limited. When it come to the later processes, the edges of the holes generally need to be burnished in order to remove the rag and scrap on them.
Sawing
This processing method is that cutting the metal pieces by using sawing facilities including band saw and disk saw that are driven by electricity. It’s usually used for separating softer types of metal into large metal workpieces. The saw teeth on the fast moving saw cuts out a small piece of material from the large piece of material though. Some heavy rags and burrs that created after sawing need to be polished.
Cutting Without Shear
For this type of sheet metal cutting process, there are mainly three types, including laser cutting, plasma cutting, and water jet cutting. There are some benefits of using them as they perform cutting decorative metal panels without shear. The workpieces cut out are precise and efficient.
Laser Cutting
This sheet metal cutting process is performed by using laser, which can generate heat with extremely high temperature, that can burn through the metal sheet to achieve a efficient and precise cutting process. As there is no cutting blade on the metal piece when it’s being cut, so this ensures no contamination from something else touching it, and also ensures no deformation occurs. Laser cutting is a consistent and clean cutting because it’s a non-touch process type. It’s a cost-effective type of process as it consumes less energy than other cutting methods.
Plasma Cutting
The processing method of by using plasma is a little similar to laser cutting, also provides a accurate cut, and it’s also a quick way but not as quick as laser cutting. Additionally, plasma cutting comes with efficiency and cost-effectiveness, so it’s widely used in industrial applications. This cutting method can only be applied on metals or materials with electric conductivity, an electrically charged beam of compressed ionized gas named plasma performs a cutting force on the metal sheet. The plasma is shot by the facility into the material and back to the grounding clamp to form a circuit. The cutting effect is rough as there are some burr and oxidized part around the edge. When the compressed gas blows away the excess material, the metal melts away when it is greatly heated.
Water Jet Cutting
The metal is cut through by a powerful water jet as high as 60,000 psi that project on the surface. It’s an ideal method to instead of using heat, it doesn’t cause any oxidized effect on the metal. And it’s excellent to be used for cutting thicker materials that the laser cutting might either not perform well. Water jet provides a high precise cut, and the cut edge comes in a smooth finish after cutting. In addition to sheet metal cutting, water jet is usually used for cutting stone, ceramic, and other softer materials like rubber.
Benefits of Using Laser For Sheet Metal Cutting
Using this type of cutting methods can accurately position the cutting head by the system, and the cutting head moves to perform to cutting on the sheet surface according to the custom patterns, which are previously designed and set in the system. The desired cutting patterns can be cut by the laser beam. The sheet metal cutting speed of laser cutting machine is much faster than other traditional cutting methods, and it has a higher cutting precision. Additionally, the patterns or graphics are more flexible to be achieve. The laser cutting system can effectively arrange the cutting shapes on the sheet metal, which can greatly help reduce scrap materials. The cutting edges of the metal sheets are clear and have no burrs on them, which can save much time for further process. There are some other benefits of using laser cutting machines for industrial applications.
For Various Different Materials
Laser sheet metal cutting is perfectly suitable for a wide range of different metals, including stainless steel, aluminium, copper, carbon steel, alloy, non-ferrous metal, and more.
High Cutting Precision
Sheet metal cut by laser cutting machine has less heat area effected by high cutting force, scrap & waste are less. The cutting method provides a cutting precision of ±0.05mm, the cutting section is clear and smooth, and its roughness is only 10 micrometers, so there is no need of further process. So the metal sheet products processed by laser cut have high precision. While the sheet metal is being cut by laser beam, it’s not need to be contacted by the any component of machine, so there is no abrasion marks on the sheet metal cutting section, and non tool wear can make the equipment has less maintenance and longer lifespan. The cutting performance is so flexible, you only preset the cutting parameters in the system, your sheet metal can be efficiently and accurately cut into many complex shapes.
Fast Operating Speed
Laser cutting machine has a wide range of models with different power from 500W to 20000W for different fabrication requirements, all of them perform cutting with fast speed and high precision. It can perform in different cutting modes for sheet metal cutting, including lightning mode and flying mode.
High Operating Efficiency
Laser cutting machine comes with a digital-controlled workbench to perform cutting automatically. The only thing the operators need to do is to use the system program to preset the parameters for importing cutting graphics. The accurate cutting can be done without manual operation once the parameters are set, and the cutting performance is efficient and stable.
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