Since plasma cutters produce a very hot and very localised cone for cutting they are very useful for cutting and welding sheets in curved or angled shapes.
Plasma cutting thin sheet metal.
If you use metal shears to cut thin sheet metal such as duct metal it curls and can be difficult to flaten properly.
The illustrations are for a small bracket but i have cut 3 foot.
Plasma cutting grew out of plasma welding in the 1960s and emerged as a very productive way to cut sheet metal and plate in the 1980s.
Laser cutting is mainly used to cut medium thin plate and the cutting materials are in a very wide range metal non metal ceramic glass etc.
It had the advantages over traditional metal against metal cutting of producing no metal chips giving accurate cuts and producing a cleaner edge than oxy fuel cutting early plasma cutters were large somewhat slow and expensive and therefore tended to be.
Finecut consumables are ideal for cutting intricate fine featured shapes out of thin sheet metal.
How to cut thin sheet metal and keep it flat.
Https goo gl frdnss in this episode we will be going over the basics of plasma cutting.
In systems such as the yag laser a fiber laser or a disk laser the laser beams reach the processing head via fiber optic cables.
A laser cutting machine for sheet metal consists of three main components.
Because the laser has the characteristics of high direction high brightness and high intensity the laser cutting speed is fast the machining precision is high and the cutting seam is very narrow and there is no need for subsequent processing.
Plasma cutting is an effective way to cut thin and thick materials.
Cutting sheet metal with a laser.
Hand torches can usually cut up to 38 mm thick steel sheet stronger computer controlled torches can cut up to 150 mm thick steel sheet.
These photo steps show that it can be done using a utility knife.