Titanium Cutting & Cut-to-Length
Most titanium orders need cutting before anything else happens. The question is rarely “can you cut it” — it is which route suits your material form, thickness and edge requirement, because the wrong one costs you either money or a usable edge.
This page is the selection guide. Each route has its own page with the detail.
Choosing the Cutting Route
| Your material | Route | Why | Edge you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bar, billet, tube, thick section | Band saw cutting | Production cut-offs at length, machining allowance retained | Saw face, squared and deburred on request |
| Foil, sheet, light-to-medium plate, complex flat profiles | Laser cutting | Narrow kerf, small heat-affected zone, fast on repeat batches | Argon-shielded bright edge |
| Thick plate, heat-sensitive parts, stacked cutting | Water jet cutting | Cold cut, no heat-affected zone at all | Cold-cut edge, slight taper on thick sections |
Rules of thumb:
- Thickness decides between laser and water jet. Laser is the right tool for foil through light and medium sheet. Once the section gets thick — or a heat-affected zone is unacceptable for the application — water jet is the better route even though it is slower.
- Bar and billet go to the saw. Profile-cutting round stock is the wrong tool at the wrong price.
- Titanium laser cutting uses high-purity argon only. Nitrogen assist forms a brittle titanium nitride layer at the cut edge and oxygen forms an oxide layer; both crack in subsequent forming or welding, and nitride is harder to remove afterwards than oxide. If a supplier offers nitrogen-cut titanium, ask what happens to the edge.
What “Cut to Length” Actually Commits To
Three things belong in the order confirmation rather than in a general promise:
- Length tolerance. Saw cutting to length holds tighter tolerances than profile cutting. The figure for your order is confirmed at quotation instead of quoted as one site-wide number.
- Cutting allowance. Kerf plus any machining allowance you need on the cut face. If the piece goes on to be faced or welded, say so — the allowance changes.
- Edge condition. As-cut, deburred, or machined. Cut edges are not automatically ready for the next operation, and for load-bearing or weld-preparation faces the removal depth should be agreed rather than assumed.
Material Forms We Cut to Length
Sheet, plate and strip; bar, rod and billet; tube and pipe; foil. The form determines the route, not the other way round — send the form and we will tell you which of the three applies.
For grades, see titanium grades; for the products themselves, see titanium products.
Ordering Cut Material
Send the material form and grade, the finished lengths and quantities, the length tolerance you need, and what happens to the piece next. That last item is what determines the route and the edge specification — a blank going straight to welding has different requirements from one going to a machining centre.
If a drawing exists, send it. If the cutting route we would choose is not the one you expected, we will say why before quoting.