Precautions for cutting thick steel plate

Steel plate cutting includes cold cutting and hot / thermal cutting.

Cold cutting includes water jet cutting, shearing, sawing or abrasive cutting;

Thermal cutting includes flame cutting, plasma cutting and laser cutting.

With the increase of steel plate thickness and hardness, the tendency of crack at the cutting edge increases. In order to prevent the occurrence of steel plate cutting cracks, the following recommendations shall be followed during cutting:

Cutting crack: the cutting crack of steel plate is similar to the hydrogen induced crack during welding. If the crack occurs at the cutting edge of steel plate, it will not appear until 48 hours to several weeks after thickness cutting.

Preheating cutting: a more effective way to prevent steel plate cutting cracks is to preheat before cutting. Note: special attention shall be paid to preheating to ensure that the interface between the two steel plates is evenly heated to avoid local overheating in the area contacting the heat source. If full plate preheating is not possible, local preheating can be used instead.

Low speed cutting: another way to avoid cutting cracks is to reduce the cutting speed.