Materials and Processes

for Agricultural and

Biosystems Engineering

Metal Cutting
Introduction
Before the middle of the 18th century the main material used in engineering structures
was wood. The lathe and a few other machine tools existed, mostly constructed and
most commonly used for shaping wooden parts. The boring of cannon and the
production of metal screws and small instrument parts were the exceptions. It was the
steam engine, with its requirement of large metal cylinders and other parts of
unprecedented dimensional accuracy, which led to the first major developments in
metal cutting.
Introduction
The technology of metal cutting has been improved by contributions from all the branches of
industry with an interest in machining. The replacement of carbon tool steel by high speed steels
and cemented carbides has allowed cutting speeds to be increased by many times. Machine tool
manufacturers have developed machines capable of making full use of the new tool materials,
while automatic machines, numerically controlled (NC) machines, often with computer control
(CNC), and transfer machines greatly increase the output per worker employed. Tool designers
and machinists have optimized the shapes of tools to give long tool life at high cutting speed.
Lubricant manufacturers have developed many new coolants and lubricants to improve surface
finish and permit increased rates of metal removal.
Introduction
Progress in technology of machining is achieved by the ingenuity and experiment,
logical thought and dogged worrying of many thousands of practitioners engaged in
the many-sided arts of metal cutting. The worker operating the machine, the tool
designer, the lubrication engineer, the metallurgist, are all constantly probing to find
answers to new problems created by the necessity to machine novel materials, and by
the incentives to reduce costs, by increasing rates of metal removal, and to achieve
greater precision or improved surface finish.
Introduction
During cutting, the interface between tool and work material is largely
inaccessible to observation, but indirect evidence concerning stresses, temperatures,
metal flow and interactions between tool and work material.
While heat can be made to fuse and unite, it can also be employed to separate, that is,
perform a cutting operation. The earliest arc welding patent for the Benardos carbon-
arc process also mention cutting. This was achieved by forming a molten pool and
allowing it to fall out by gravity.
Introduction
The results or thermal cutting in this way are rough and generally unsatisfactory bur
great improvements result from combining the heat source with a jet of gas, usually
oxygen or air.
 An air jet with a carbon arc is widely used for gouging the surface of steel. The arc melts a
pool on the surface and the air jet blows it away.
 An oxygen jet with an oxy-acetylene heat source was the most commonly used thermal cutting
process for steel. Although today oxypropane has become widely used.
Introduction
 In plasma cutting an inert gas tungsten arc is constricted by making the arc pass
through a water-cooled nozzle and the inert gas thus concentrated forms the jet which
elects the molten metal from the cut.
 A recent development has allowed air to be used the plasma torch for cutting thin
sheet steel. This has only been possible by finding an electrode material more resistant
to oxidation than tungsten.
 Most cutting processes, including oxy-fuel gas cutting, are available with computer
controlled profiling equipment which can access standard shapes in memory and
select the sequence of cutting and the arrangement of shapes to provide the most
economical use of material.
Different Types of Metal
Cutting Process
1. Cutting with Oxy-Fuel Gas
2. Laser Cutting
3. Cutting Tool using Diamond
Different Types of Metal
Cutting Process
Cutting with Oxy-Fuel Gas
The oxy-fuel gas cutting process depends on the
reaction between oxygen and iron to form iron
oxides. This reaction gives out considerable heat
and is self-sustaining once the required preheat or
'kindling' temperature is reached. To earn out
cutting a blowpipe is needed in which the nozzle
supplying the oxy-fuel gas flame contains a central
ounce through which a jet of oxygen can be
directed.
Different Types of Metal
Cutting Process
Cutting with Oxy-Fuel Gas
Cutting then commences with the flow of oxygen sweeping away the fluid products of
combustion through the slot which is being cut. The slot is called a kerf. Oxy-fuel gas
cutting is sensitive to the cleanliness of the surface being cut and if possible rust or
paint should be removed before cutting begins.
Manual oxy-fuel gas cutting is extremely useful for reclaiming scrap metal and
fettling castings, etc. Although manual cutting is used on a small scale for preparing
edges for welding the quality of the cut is greatly improved by mechanization. A
major use of oxy-fuel gas cutting is in mechanized or automated cutting.
Different Types of Metal
Cutting Process
Laser Cutting
Laser cutting was the first and still is the most important
application for CO2 lasers up to 500W. It is normally
carried out with the aid of a gas jet,. as shown in figure 2,
oxygen or compressed air being used for ferrous materials
(as the resultant exothermic reaction assists the cutting
process) and inert gases when cutting non-metals. The
process will cut profiles with precision at high speed and is
especially suitable for heat resisting and alloy steels which
are difficult to cut by other means.
Different Types of Metal
Cutting Process
Cutting Tool using Diamond
Some materials used for cutting such as diamond which is the hardest of all materials,
diamond, has long been employed as a cutting tool although its high cost has
restricted use to operations where other tool material cannot perform effectively.
Diamond tools show a much lower rate of wear and longer tool life than carbides or
oxides under conditions where abrasion is the dominant wear mechanism because of
their very high hardness. The extreme hardness of diamond is related to its crystal
structure. This consists two interpenetrating, face-centered cubic lattices arranged so
that each carbon atom has four near neighbors to which it is attracted by covalent
bonds.
Importance of Coolants and Lubricants
in Cutting of Materials
A tour of most machine shops will demonstrate that some cutting operations are
carried out dry, but in many other cases, a flood of liquid is directed over the tool, to
act as a coolant and or a lubricant. These cutting fluids perform a very important role
and many operations cannot be efficiently carried out without the correct type of fluid.
They are used for a
number of objectives:
(1) To prevent the tool, work piece and machine from overheating.
(2) To increase tool life.
(3) To improve surface finish.
(4) To help clear the swarf from the cutting area.