Comparison of plasma machining of 1016 steels with TP 316L stainless steel

Advances in manufacturing technology have made manufacturers develop the most complex parts in a short time with good quality. These parts are made by laser and plasma machining technologies, which are some of these well-established technologies in manufacturing. In this work, a bibliographical research was used, under a field research approach, which was the mechanized process in plasma machining, showing compressed air as cutting gas. Input process parameters such as speed, pressure and DBCP were analyzed, along with the output parameters, which were temperature, microcrack, ZAC and hardness. The collected data were dissipated statistically, computational modeling and through non-destructive tests. All experiments were carried out with a steel bench table, a tube rotation device, a plasma machine, an 8 psi compressor, a regulation support for DBCP (nozzle contact piece distance) and a thermal imager. As a result of the options of the influence of the microcrack output parameter, the stainless steel TP 316L did not have the presence of microcracks, which can be said to have had no harmful influence on the input parameters. On the other hand, in SAE 1016 steels, there were microcracks in the first 1, 2, 7 and 8, with the speed and pressure parameter being the only influent. (author)