Cutting, gouging and surfacing
The welding coordinator must assess whether a cut or gouged surface will become a load-bearing weld edge, the root of a repair, a bevel for automated welding or a functional surface for overlay welding. Thermal cutting can change geometry, surface chemistry, edge hardness, residual stress and joint cleanliness.
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The welding coordinator must assess whether a cut or gouged surface will become a load-bearing weld edge, the root of a repair, a bevel for automated welding or a functional surface for overlay welding. Thermal cutting can change geometry, surface chemistry, edge hardness, residual stress and joint cleanliness.
Practical consequence: if the WPS specifies edge preparation but does not control cut quality and groove cleaning, weld quality is only partially controlled.
The cut is produced by locally heating steel to its ignition temperature and then using the exothermic oxidation of iron in an oxygen jet. It is suitable mainly for non-alloy and low-alloy steels; the principle does not work in the same way for stainless steel and aluminium because stable oxides inhibit cutting.
Controlled variables: preheating flame, cutting-oxygen purity and pressure, nozzle, stand-off distance, travel speed, direction of travel, surface condition and component distortion.
What the module covers
- Cutting is not merely material separation. It is the first thermal operation applied to the future welded joint.
- Oxy-fuel cutting
- Plasma cutting and gouging
- Laser cutting
- Gouging and imperfection removal
- Cutting technologies and their effect on subsequent welding
- Cut surface according to EN ISO 9013 — what matters to the welding engineer
- Typical quality characteristics
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