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Bethlehem Lukens Plate
Although clad has been used for many years, some of the more frequently asked questions about clad deal with fabrication. How do I cut it? What about forming? Will the composite come apart? In many cases, cutting, forming, welding, drilling or machining can be performed more easily on clad steels than on solid high alloy materials. However, like many high alloys, our clad steels are premium products and should be handled as such. Care should be exercised to preserve the cladding surface properties by avoiding physical damage in handling or by contamination with free iron from contact with forming equipment or tools. Thermal Cutting BLP clad steels, with the exception of copper clad, can be thermal cut by following procedures that are similar to those used on carbon steel. For plates with cladding percentages up to 30%, greater if the composite is thicker than 1/2-inch, successful cutting is based on using lower oxygen cutting pressures and larger cutting tips than would be utilized for equivalent thickness of carbon steel. All types, thicknesses and percentages of cladding may be cut by plasma arc torches. Representative oxygen cutting conditions for various thicknesses of clad steels are given in Table 1. Table 1.
Note: This data is intended as a guide in setting up cutting operations; variations to suit specific shop or job conditions may be found to be beneficial. Clad plate should be protected during any cutting, with the cladding side face down to facilitate cutting through the backing side.This is necessary to allow the resulting slag stream from the backing steel to act as the burning agent in cutting the cladding. For plasma arc cutting, the cladding side may remain up. Cutting of copper or cupro-nickel clad requires specialized controls and settings. For help with these, or any other clad combination, please consult our Technical Service metallurgists.
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