Understanding the Importance of Bevel Cutting in Fabrication Units | Messer Cutting Systems

1. Why is Bevel cutting needed in Fabrication units?

In any application, properly preparing metal for welding is key to producing high-quality results, maintaining consistent productivity levels, and minimizing costs, especially costs related to rework and downtime.
Preparing metal for welding is often done by cutting, fitting, and bevelling the base material. The amount of care and preparation put into the initial cut can reduce the amount of work that goes into post processing later. 
Many tools can be used for cutting, including a torch / plasma cutter, shears, laser / waterjet / CNC tables and manual tools such as cutting wheels, mechanical bevel cutters, etc. However, each method of edge preparation has its pros and cons. 
Properly preparing metal for welding is the key to produce high-quality results, maintaining consistent productivity levels and minimizing costs.
Offhand, cutting with a right-angle grinder is inexpensive, portable and does not require as much setup and maintenance as most of the other options. But to achieve clean, straight cuts, you need a fair amount of practice and skill. Making the initial cut as clean, straight, and consistent as possible will make it easier to produce quality results.
A clean, consistent gap between the two pieces to be welded will produce a stronger, more consistent weld with less filler metal, reducing costs and saving time.

2. Challenges in Current scenario for Edge preparation

Accuracy of a fabricated / welded component mostly relies on Weld edge preparation, Fitment / alignment of parts and welded joints. Having understood that, the existing industry practices of edge preparation is done with following methods:

1. Hand Grind
2. Torch or Plasma cut by hand
3. Portable bevelling machine
4. Stationary bevelling machine

Challenges in the above process

1. More dirty operations and rough surfaces
2. Inconsistent bevel surfaces
3. High setup and cycle time for each component
4. Unsafe practices in hand grinding
5. High operating cost and heavy human effort
6. Inconsistent fitments and poor aesthetics
7. Fabrication error due to poor weld joints

3. Solution to edge preparation

Automatic edge preparation is achieved through CNC bevelling via thermal cutting process which gives an accurate edge quality for welding. Setup time is negligible in case of CNC bevelling. Thermal cutting process is one of the easy ways to achieve clean cut with accurate dimensional results. However, the thickness of the bevelling process is limited based on the process nature.

Benefits

• Fast, Clean cuts and Consistent dimensions
• Reduced setup and cycle time
• Low cost per bevel
• Safe working space
• Minimal maintenance

4. Messer bevel solutions

5. Industrial Applications for wide bevel use

6. Messer Bevel machine Installations across India