Cutting Stainless Steel in a Zone 2 Production Area

Water jet might work.

it might but a bit to complex and expensive. I need to keep is as simple as possible.

but thanks for the suggestion

many thanks for that!! Will be contacting them asap

Nice find...

Really interesting! But even after downloading the brochure, I saw no explanation for what it is that makes their cutting process spark-free, beyond lower speed.

it cuts the material in the same way that a hacksaw or a end mill would. chips but no burning.

These might work...

What about that extra 0.23 mm he needs to cut through, and it is stainless steel. It is a nice looking tool to have though. Everyone should have one.

..."The wall is 1 mm to 1.5mm thick (to be confirmed)"...

It might just slip in under the wire....even if it's only good for this one time use, still pretty cheap...

For
$10

one

could hardly

go wrong.

The blades in those are replaceable, even if you got through a couple it would be OK. They are a bit hard on the hands with thicker steel & you need to drill about a 10mm pilot hole if you are not starting at the edge. Easy to use & no panel distortion.

Some type of shears as mention earlier, not sure what material type your cutting, pipe I assume.

but you could talk to these guys... or people that bought their (portable water jets) machines. I know they do throw sparks at times though, but maybe if you don't use garnet.. it's a long shot especially with 1-1/2" stainless.

mm ≠ inch

oh,... good thing I'm not working for nasa.

Nah, you would fit right in! LOL!

I need to cut into the side of a S/S enclosure as a modification. As I said there are 3 cuts to be made 2 vertical and one horizontal between the two vertical ones to remove a piece of the S/S enclosure wall.

Why am I making such a strange mod? There is an existing aperture, I need to make is bigger by cutting out the size of section I mentioned

Shears might be a solution if I'm not allowed to use the 'no sparks' grinder. My first option!

The wall is 1 mm to 1.5mm thick (to be confirmed)

why not use a sawzall?

Have you considered tenting the area to affect the zone, and exclude gas? I not sure if there is a proper safety protocol standard for that, but it could be an option?

Get a gas detector, a hacksaw and a water spray bottle as a mister and two guys to help. One to hold the GD and one to mist the cut point while you SLOWLY work your way thru the material.

NEC Zone 2 is only "hot" potential, but not under normal operating conditions and if so, only for short periods of time usually associated with an upset production circumstance.

If you're cutting into a vessel or pipework, it should be inserted usually with nitrogen first.

The facility permit to work system requirements should be clear on such SIMOP conditions, inclusive of any lockout and isolation requirements for the system you are intervening upon.

Correction: * inerted* with nitrogen...(dumb smart phone, sorry)

Get a gas detector, a hacksaw and a water spray bottle as a mister and two guys to help. One to hold the GD and one to mist the cut point while you SLOWLY work your way thru the material.

Last resort, if I have to... but trying to avoid it as I got 8 of the beauties to do.

I'm cutting into the side panel/wall of a 6ft by 12 ft by 3 ft S/S enclosure to retro-fit a new and smaller Zone 2 A/C unit.

Thank you for the refresher on the zones.. never hurts to state them.

Hand held nibbler is the way to go. The $10 version suggested so far is only good for 1.2mm mild steel. (i.e about 1mm on 304 and 0.8mm on 316) Facom do a beefed up version that I use on 2mm 316 when making metal sculptures. Model 887A £72 on Ebay.

How about something like this?

http://www.industrial-toolcrib.com/Flex-LW1509-45-In-Wet-Angle-Grinder_p_405.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4vzos4rX1gIVWbjACh0fgAlaEAQYAyABEgLyv_D_BwE

Awesome if I need to grind stone or concrete!!

What I was suggesting is a saw or cutting tool that has a water cooling device attached.

Keep in mind that many tools like the previously mentioned Sawzall have motors that can generate sparks. Air driven drills and reciprocating saws are great. Also, it has been a while since I've had to cut SS. Does it spark like steel and iron?

Yes, it sparks. It is steel with a little chrome thrown in. (That's an oversimplification)

Spark testing - Wikipedia

I think sparks generated by Ti are the most impressive, as they are bright white.

Mask the area you want as finished part, connect to an anode wire and hang in a salt solution tank, Take one more steel part part as a cathode, control the current and wait for some time.

Note- masking to be done little more then what is final size of part, this is to avoid the material lost due to undercutting.

You can search more on electro-chemical machining, to get the high degree of precision.

I have never, ever attempt to cut metal in that way, but I can see that with a velocity jet, it could be more effective.

Not sure what qty and level of quality is OP looking for.

Water jet surely can work, and even may work better. But need a sophisticated machine with X.Y table and control unit.

Masked electrolysis is cheep and dirty solution with a reasonable level of accuracy. user may need to throw couple of initial PCs to set the process working.

Ultimately process should be chosen with considerations like-

Purpose of making part. (for initial concept, prototyping, or mass volume production supply etc) and level of precision required in part.

From the OP statement, it looks like that He is trying to make few parts in an area which is not designated for manufacturing of same, and therefore it looks like an irregular items that being made for idea validation

I think he is wanting to cut an opening in a wall to a restricted (combustibility) zone in a refinery, for the purposes of installing an AC unit.

Probably, some critical instrumentation (already perhaps intrinsically safe) is housed beyond that wall, and is overheating?

This may limit what can be sprayed where.

Another option we have all discussed would be a gas-blanketing zone where the work is being done, but it requires extreme measures, and workers in SCBA.

I'm He's "cutting into the side panel/wall of a 6ft by 12 ft by 3 ft S/S enclosure to retro-fit a new and smaller Zone 2 A/C unit ".

I think I already had seen that, thanks for pointing it out again, brother.

I have been getting feeds like (nibbler) this for a while,... then they stopped. One just came in.

Wow! That is impressive! I didn't see a source...

Really elegant solution to the need. Way to go bro!

I had to look that one up! Here's one source:https://gadgetsandcoolstuff.com/products/professional-sheet-metal-nibbler-tool-the-pronibbler-drill-attachment?variant=48996057999

I don't do much sheet metal, but based on the video, the unit will pay for itself ($40) in a single use!

With stainess, the capabilities usually drop to 75%. i.e., if it can cut 0.100" thick mild steel material, for Stainless it would cut 0.075" material.

2.5 mm = 0.098"

Again, i don't know what the capability of this tool is though.

I hadn't yet seen where the OP upped the thickness to 2.5mm SS, and I don't believe he has specified yet (if he even knows) which grade of SS. Cutting that thickness of any SS is hardly trivial.

I'd start by finding out who makes that pro nibbler; there may well be a heavy duty version. Since he says he's got 8 of these units to do, it's worth doing some serious investigation (as he is doing by starting here).

A tedious, but workable, possibility would be multiple uses of a rectangular Greenlee punch (hopefully a hydraulic one). Of course this would require drilling a series of holes, but as long as the drill speeds are kept low, there should be no sparking and not a lot of heat. In fact, this could be a good idea for doing the corners first when using other cutting methods.

the grade is 316L

My mistake, 1.5mm

No, not your mistake! In the original post, and one other, Brich said 1.5mm, but in post #42, he said 2.5mm confirmed, and in#45 he said it is 316L. That is a major enclosure!

And while I'm here, I did a bit of looking, and was amazed to find hole punches and nibblers from well under $10 (but not for 2.5mm 316L SS), up to a couple of thousand dollars...

It should not be too difficult to affix that to a center pivot and cut circular patterns (think Tesla turbine discs). That would be a great deal cheaper than having them stamped out in a short run setup.

Its now confirmed that the thickness of the stainless steel enclosure is 2.5 mm.

The enclosure does indeed have delicate instruments installed close to the output of the existing A/C unit, making a jet cutter impossible.

I still am not getting any joy with the 'no spark' grinding/cutting.. if anyone know of a nibbler that can cut 2.5 mm S/s, I'm all ears, as my efforts to find something suitable even a reciprocating no spark saw would do right now.

I thank you all for your answers...

OK at that thickness, this will do the job.

https://www.amazon.com/Makita-JN3201-10-Gauge-Nibbler/dp/B00LP499FM/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_469_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=R6MV7NE7CS2VPH223C9R

I checked, and concur that if the claims of 13 ga. stainless steel are correct, the tool you linked will do the job(s) in short order, and do them safely.

One time, or ongoing?

I have a Dewalt 18 volt jigsaw with a good Lenox 18 tooth metal cutting blade would do that in 5 minutes, I do all the time. It won't spark and the blade will last forever if you keep the speed low. The saw is variable speed, real slow (like one stroke in 10 seconds if you want) and has a variable orbit (set it to no orbit or just a little). Stainless steel need to be cut or drilled slowly with a good amount of force on the tool or it work hardens. Drill a starter hole with a step bit (slow speed, like 100 rpm) to get started. A step bit doesn't have any lead angle on it so when it cuts thin materials it doesn't pull itself through. If you can put a spot of cutting wax on the blade all the better, if it smokes you are running the blade too fast. If you can't live with the hole you can flip the saw upside down and carefully plunge the blade.

There are air driven nibblers that will handle the thickness and can be started through a drilled hole, for cheap!

https://www.harborfreight.com/16-gauge-air-nibbler-96661.html

https://www.amazon.com/16-Gauge-Air-Nibbler/dp/B00678184G

16 gauge SS is 0.0625" thick. This stuff is 0.0985" thick. A heavier tool is required.

If in fact its 2.5MM.

For nibblers, 0.0625 SS would still be tough to cut.

Did you miss my other post? This tool handles 10 gage.

https://www.amazon.com/Makita-JN3201-10-Gauge-Nibbler/dp/B00LP499FM/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_469_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=R6MV7NE7CS2VPH223C9R

10 gauge what? Stainless or Mild Steel. For stainless you cut its capacity to about 75% of Mild Steel.

10 gage thickness is about .14" thickness. 2.5mm is about .098"

I cut a lot of stainless. A new punch cutter nibbler rated on steel will cut the same thickness in sheet stainless, particularly with a few drops of the cutting lubricant called Mistic Metal Remover.

But by your own numbers (75%) 10 gage capacity rated for sheet steel exceeds the necessary power to cut .098" stainless.

If you really wanted to go to town get a Modern nibbler, it's 1 hp and will chop through 12 ga stainless steel all day long. If you are concerned about chips getting into things, a nibbler will make thousands of sharp crescent shaped chips that you won't be able to clean up with a magnet.

316 stainless is non-magnetic.

Here is the good idea: use a tool (ex: grinder) with air power, and do not forget to use water if necessary.

Hi,

We are a Distributor for Certified Cold Work Tools - Grinders and cutting tools. We would be happy to look into your application. No other tool company in the World with our expertise is Certified. Our Certifications Include Class 1 Div 1 & 2, EX Dust & Gas Zones 1 & 2.

Most of our Users are Chemical Plants, Refineries and so on, and they cannot afford the risk of an ignition. Make sure before you buy they offer a Certificate by an Independent Authority and a Registry such as ATEX. If they say their tools are safe and just show a video as proof most likely they are not good enough to get a Certification. There are many companies out there cutting corners and not getting Certifications which put the Users at risk.

If the tools you are looking for need to be Certified we have several options.

https://tft-pneumatic.com/catalog/safety-tools/

We have them as a stand alone tool and disc or with cutting guides. For a more specific cutting options please look at:

https://tft-pneumatic.com/products/safety-tools/a-0420-compact-cutting-guide/

In any case we are based in Houston, TX and would be happy to discuss your project.

Thank you.

TFT-PNEUMATIC, LLC

+1 713 862 4851

www.tft-pneumatic.com

If you are looking for another option, one that may or may not throw sparks we have a milling disc for Steel that may do the trick. It runs at max 2,500 rpm and can be used in an variable speed electric or pneumatic grinder. This is not a Certified tool, but it is a much cheaper option. You may want to click at the link below and then watch the General Video, then select the Steel Option. It is one of the best ways to prep steel for welding, particularly stainless, Inconel and other high specialty alloys as there is no abrasives being imbedded into the steel.

https://tft-pneumatic.com/catalog/tft-milling-discs/

As for the Low RPM grinder to pair it too, this is a great option:

https://tft-pneumatic.com/products/fein/compact-angle-grinder-tft-wsg-17-70-inox-rt/

Cheers!