how many ways to cut a material?

Jan 14, 2004 15 Replies

I'm thinking that there are three possible ways to cut any material...


  1. oxidize it along the cut line. For example, burning through with an oxy- acetylene torch. This is often called "burning" in the metal trades.


  1. tear it apart with a force that exceeds the tensile strength. I don't know the proper term for this process.

  2. push through it with a force that exceeds the compressive strength. I also don't know the proper term for this process.



Am I correct?



what tools do what? For example, what exactly does a scissors do? Is that different than what a knife does?


No oxidation in inert envirinments with ortch or laser

many materials can be melted or vaporized without oxidation

  1. Water jet cutting.
  2. Sandblasting.
  3. E-beam cutting.
  4. EDM.

  1. Chemical milling.

I'm sure I could think of others, if I bothered to spend another 30 seconds thinking about it.

Also melt it and pour the results into little molds.

Bob Kolker

Shear cutting. KA-CHUK!

4) Melt (laser in argon). 5) Electroform (electrochemically dissolve the part line metal) 6) Abrasive cutting - alumina entrained in high pressure/high velocity water. 7) Corrode the part line - acid (and alkali on aluminum, titanium, zinc...). 8) Part line failure through flexure and work-hardening. 9) Intergranular corrosion (gallium chemically plated onto aluminum in tension). Getting stuff apart is not nearly the problem of keeping it intact. "8^>)

Uncle Al snipped-for-privacy@hate.spam.net

Unless you're in a straight jacket, when some 'shear' strength might help. FM

-- Laser, plasma, etc cut. Using heat sums it up.

-- Not practical. Little comtrol over where it'd break unless part had a reduced section.

-- That's shearing as with a die and press. High velocity water is used to cuts some materials.

-- Shear, the same basic action for both.

A lot of other methods have already been suggested. Another one that comes to mind: ultrasonic cutting.

Failure Modes: Gross yielding Buckling Creep Brittle fracture Fatigue, low cycle Fatigue, high cycle Contact fatigue Fretting Corrosion Stress-corrosion cracking Galvanic corrosion Hydrogen embrittlement Wear Thermal fatigue Corrosion fatigue

Shearing Bearing Compression Adiabatic Shear Melting Over-aging Thermal shock

And the ever-popular V-groove shaped explosive. Slurry wire saw too.

Ah yes--linear shaped charge.

And wire EDM.

Rotate one end, while holding the other fixed. Convert the middle into an amalgam. Dissolve the middle with acid. Water knife. Bombard the middle with neutrons and/or positrons.

David A. Smith

Those are all failure modes, not manufacturing processes.

material...

Die stamping

Dropping a building

Injection molding

Jack hammer

Brinnelling to improve surface condition (but not for cutting in two) Sandblasting as a machining process

*Some* of them are used in manufacturing. Some of the others are used by artists to provide interesting surfaces.

David A. Smith

-- Of course they are, no duh. But failure modes aren't manufacturing processes.

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