- 3 December 2024
There are several technologies for cutting aluminum profiles, depending on the characteristics of the details and the amount of work involved. Some methods can be used at home, while others require special industrial equipment.
When it comes to what to cut aluminum profiles with, home tools come to the fore. Hand cutting aluminum can be done using simple and compact equipment that is easy to store, carry and convenient to use at home, which is why craftsmen use it to cut metal themselves. The most popular tools:
- Metal saw. Used for cutting profiles and sheet metal of small thickness.
- Metal scissors. Often used for working with aluminum and requiring less time than using a metal saw. However, properly cutting an object with scissors requires experience.
- With a jigsaw, you can achieve high-quality cuts without burrs. It is important to properly fix the workpiece and use only tools designed for working with metal.
Despite all the convenience of hand tools, the cutting speed with them will be low. In addition, manual cutting of aluminum does not guarantee that the results of the work will be accurate and free from deformation.
If you don't know what to cut aluminum with, then slightly more advanced tools come to the rescue. In particular, cutting aluminum with an angle grinder is popular. A grinder is a multifunctional tool that can also be used to cut detailed parts. It is important to choose the right equipment. This is because cutting aluminum with an angle grinder can cause significant material loss. Another tool is a circular saw, the use of which will significantly speed up the speed of cutting. The disadvantages of the tool are its heavy weight and high cost: it only makes sense to buy the tool if you need to do a large amount of work. In industrial settings, on the other hand, the following types of equipment are used:
- Plasma and laser. They provide high quality cutting and high speed: it takes only a few minutes to process even a large amount of material. Modern machines are fully automated and configurable: you just need to set the necessary parameters, and the equipment will automatically do the main work.
- The cutting of aluminum with a slash machine can also be adjusted to specific parameters, and you can use them to produce parts of almost any size and shape. Aluminum slash cutting is one of the cheapest ways to process aluminum.
- Gas cutting involves supplying a mixture of gases and oxygen to the workpiece. The metal is first heated to a high temperature, and then a stream of oxygen is applied to it. In this way, it is possible to cut aluminum up to 1,000 mm thick in any configuration. With its help, sheet metal of any thickness can be processed, including very complex cuts. The use of this technology makes it possible to offer customers affordable cutting costs while maintaining high quality.
- Another method is guillotine cutting. This is special equipment with a knife that cuts metal under high pressure, even of considerable thickness. The technology provides high speed processing of a large volume of material, achieving an even cut without deformation or burrs.
Angle grinder, can perfectly handle the cutting of aluminum profiles. This is done by special cutting wheels of small thickness, which reduce the loss of material during cutting. Since the tool works very fast, and sparks and metal dust and shavings occur during cutting, it is important to use personal protective equipment (gloves and goggles). A circular saw works on the same principle as a regular saw. However, thanks to its greater power, it can handle more material and works much faster. The angle grinder also has other advantages:
- Cutting profiles from all sides.
- Sawing in different directions (at an angle, along or across).
- The ability to select the optimal cutting speed depending on the thickness of the metal.
- Signaling or automatic shutdown in case of overheating.
