Several types of cutting machines are available for production cutting of tube and bar, such as cold saws, band saws, lasers, shears, waterjets, and abrasive cutting machines. While each has its advantages and disadvantages, abrasive cutting fills a niche with its ability to accommodate special applications, such as difficult-to-cut stock; tube that must be cut cleanly without serious distortion, especially very thin-walled tube; short cut lengths; and applications that require scrap minimization (see Sidebar). A typical automatic abrasive cutting machine anatomy comprises a feeder, a machine vise area with cutting head, an ejection system and collector, and electronics and software that control the system (see Figure 1). At the heart of this system is the cutting component, the abrasive wheel.
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