Oxy-Fuel Cutting

In oxygen cutting, the metal is heated to its ignition temperature and then a jet of pure oxygen is added which reacts with the metal creating the cut. Oxygen cutting is ideally suited to cutting material between 3 and 1000mm thick. Although it can be used to cut below 3mm thick with specially designed sheet cutting nozzles the resultant cuts often suffer from poor edge definition and because of the high levels of heat applied, distortion is often also a problem. For cutting very thick items such as steel billets oxygen cutting is a very cost efficient alternative to mechanical cutting.  Applications for oxygen cutting are wide and varied ranging from simple hand cutting of individual components to the mass production of components using multi-head cutting machines, often with computer control to accurately follow the shape of the component.

• Oxygen is used to produce a chemical reaction and blow away the molten reaction products.
• The fuel gases used are generally acetylene, LPG, an intermediate fuel gas, or natural gas.
• Oxygen at a purity 99.5% or better should be used.
• Oxygen cutting is useful for cutting most steels and titanium but is unsuitable for stainless steel and aluminium.
• Special cutting torches and nozzles are required, which depend on the fuel gas being used.