Gas Cutting Machine for Sale — 43

Gas Cutting Equipment

Gas Cutting vs. Gas Welding

Gas cutting process is a thermal metal cutting procedure at which the heat energy produced from an oxygen flame and a burning gas (acetylene, propane or NG) flame is used to cut the metal. It is the oldest procedure used in industry since 1908. Cutting with the oxy fuel process is just the opposite from gas welding which is a process of joining metals by application of heat created by gas flame. Gas cutting machines, such as CNC gas cutting machine and automatic gas cutting machine, use acetylene and oxygen to preheat metal to red hot and then use pure oxygen to burn away the preheated metal. Because this is achieved by oxidation, it is only effective on metals like mild steel and low alloy steels that are easily oxidized at this temperature. Gas cutting tools can be used to cut thicknesses from 2/8″ to up to 12″.

Working of a Gas Cutting Machine

The equipment and accessories for oxy-gas cutting are the same as for oxy-gas welding except that you use a gas cutting torch, accompanied by a gas cutting set, instead of a welding torch. The main difference between the cutting torch and the welding torch is that the cutting torch has an additional tube for high-pressure oxygen, along with a cutting tip or nozzle. The tip is provided with a center hole through which a jet of pure oxygen passes. Mixed oxygen and acetylene pass through holes surrounding the center holes for the preheating flames. The number of orifices for oxyacetylene flames ranges from 2 to 6, depending on the purpose for which the tip is used. The cutting torch is controlled by a trigger or lever operated valve. The cutting torch is furnished with interchangeable tips for cutting steel from less than ¼” to more than 12.0” in thickness. Gas cutting can be done manually or by a machine, called gas cutting machine. The manual cutting is used for general purpose work and for straight line cutting. In machine cutting, the torch is mounted on a rail and both rail and the torch can move simultaneously along two mutually perpendicular axes in the horizontal plane with the help of servo motors. Robotic oxy-fuel cutters provide flexibility to produce almost any shape from large steel plates. There is provision to hold more than one torch so that large number of identical pieces can be cut at the same time.

Applications of Gas Cutting

• Gas cutting would be useful only for those materials which readily get oxidized and the oxides have lower melting points than the metals. So it is most widely used for ferrous materials.

• Oxygen cutting cannot be applied on materials like aluminium, bronze, stainless steel which have a tendency to resist oxidation.

• Cutting of high carbon steels and cast irons require special attention due to formation of heat affected zone (HAZ) where structural transformation occurs.