How to cut

This section provides practical guidance on how to cut steel efficiently and safely. Learn about different cutting methods, recommended parameters, and best practices to achieve high cut quality and longer tool life.

Cutting SSAB steel - What you need to know

Cutting high‑strength and wear‑resistant steels requires a solid understanding of thermal cutting methods, careful preparation, and consistent quality‑control practices. These steels react differently to heat compared to conventional grades, which means that every step — from planning the cut to managing heat input and finishing the edges — plays a crucial role in maintaining the material’s performance. When the cutting process is handled correctly, you can achieve clean, accurate edges, stable part geometry, and preserved mechanical properties even in demanding applications.

Working with advanced steels also means adapting your approach to the specific characteristics of the material: its hardness, toughness, thickness, and sensitivity to heat. Proper setup, correct parameter selection, and awareness of how the steel behaves during cutting help prevent issues such as distortion, cracking, or excessive hardening along the cut edge. This guide brings together the essential knowledge from SSAB’s cutting resources to support you through the entire workflow — helping you plan, execute, and finalize cutting operations with confidence and consistency.


Planning and preparation

Find practical, technical guidance for planning and performing thermal cutting of SSAB’s high‑strength and wear‑resistant steels. These resources cover optimized nesting, proper preparation for oxy‑fuel and plasma cutting, and correct preheating methods. Together, they give you a complete foundation for achieving high cut quality, maintaining material properties, and ensuring a safe, controlled cutting process.




How to cut

This collection brings together SSAB’s most practical and detailed guidance for achieving high‑quality steel cutting with oxy‑fuel, plasma, and laser technologies. The material highlights the key techniques, settings, and troubleshooting methods needed to produce clean edges, maintain process stability, and handle demanding geometries in high‑strength steels.

The combined content covers:

  • How to pierce steel with an oxy fuel torch? — best practices for initiating cuts through the plate surface, controlling heat input, and preventing nozzle blockage during piercing operations.

  • How to cut small radiuses or sharp corners? — methods for shaping tight contours while minimizing stress concentrations and maintaining smooth transitions in complex profiles.

  • How to get high edge quality with oxy-fuel cutting of steel? — guidance on identifying common cut‑quality issues and correcting them through adjustments in speed, oxygen pressure, nozzle distance, and preheat control.

  • How to get high edge quality with plasma cutting of steel? — insights into the causes of negative cut angles and how to optimize consumables, alignment, and travel speed for precise, consistent results.

  • How to get high edge quality with laser cutting of steel? — recommendations for material preparation, focus settings, assist‑gas selection, and process parameters to reduce dross, burrs, and heat‑affected zones.


Manage deformations and thermal effects

Thermal cutting can introduce unwanted distortion and material softening when heat input, part dimensions, and internal stresses aren’t controlled. This page gives you a clear overview of why these effects occur and what you can do to prevent them. You’ll learn the key factors that influence heat‑related deformation, practical steps to keep material properties intact, and answers to two essential questions: how to minimize distortions from thermal cutting and how to avoid softening with thermal cutting.


Finishing

How to postheat after thermal cutting?

Postheating is a proven technique for preventing cut‑edge cracking in processed materials. To be effective, the postheating step must begin immediately after cutting, with the interval between cutting and reheating kept as short as possible and never longer than 60 minutes. Depending on the workflow, postheating can be carried out in a furnace or using torches, both offering reliable control over material integrity.

Understand the process

How does thermal cutting remove steel?

As the name suggests, thermal cutting uses thermal energy to cut steel. Depending on the source of this energy, there are several methods of thermal cutting. While the specific technologies vary, the fundamental principle is the same: the material is heated until it reaches a molten state and is then blown out of the cut zone using a jet of oxygen or another gas.

Below are the most commonly used thermal cutting methods:

Oxy-fuel Cutting

This method relies on two sources of energy. First, a fuel gas is burned in the presence of oxygen to produce a flame that heats the steel to its ignition temperature. Once the steel is hot enough, a stream of pure oxygen is directed at the material. This triggers an exothermic oxidation reaction, essentially burning the steel. The pressure of the oxygen jet then blows away the molten metal and combustion products (oxides) from the cut zone.

Plasma Cutting

Plasma cutting begins when an electric arc is formed between an electrode and the workpiece. A compressed gas—usually air, oxygen, nitrogen, or argon—flows through this arc and becomes ionized, forming plasma, the fourth state of matter. This high-temperature plasma melts the steel, and the high-velocity gas stream expels the molten metal from the kerf, completing the cut.

Laser Cutting

Laser cutting is a precise method that uses a focused beam of high-energy light to cut materials. The laser concentrates energy into a small spot on the surface of the steel, causing it to melt or burn. An assist gas (such as oxygen or nitrogen) then blows the molten or vaporized material out of the cut, resulting in a clean and accurate edge.

Each of these thermal cutting methods is suited to different applications and material thicknesses, and their use depends on factors like precision requirements, speed, and cost.

FAQs about cutting

SSAB CutCalc

SSAB CutCalc provides recommended machine settings for oxy‑fuel, plasma, laser, and waterjet cutting of steel plates. It also includes troubleshooting and quality‑improvement guidance, covering pre‑heating, post‑heating, slow cutting, submerged cutting, and selecting the right cutting method.

CutCalc web app

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The information in this report is only applicable to SSAB’s products and should not be applied to any other products than original SSAB products. 

This report provides general results and recommendations for SSAB steel products. This report is subject to SSAB’s Terms of Use. It shall be the user's responsibility to verify that the information contained herein is correct and is suitable to be used for the particular purpose and application of the user. The report is intended to be used by professional users only who possess adequate expertise, qualification and knowledge for the safe and correct use of the results and recommendations in this report. This report is provided “as is”. The use of the report is at user’s own discretion and risk and that users will be solely responsible for any use of this report. SSAB disclaims any liability for the content or potential errors of this report, including but not limited to warranties and condition of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose or suitability for individual applications. SSAB shall not be liable for any kind of direct or indirect damages and/or costs related to or arising therefrom, whether special, incidental, consequential or directly or indirectly related to the use of, or the inability to use, the report or the content, information or results included therein.