# How much time is needed to cut steel?

A sawblade cuts a piece of steel which has a rectangular profile with height $h$ and width $b$. The length of this piece is given by $\ell$ (not relevant for the cutting process). I have a sawblade with length $L$ and sawtooths that have length $\Delta L$ (the sawblade therefore has $N = \frac{L}{\Delta L}$ sawtooths), peak height $f$ (the distance from minimum to maximum of a sawtooth) and thickness of the sawblate is $t$.

The sawblade is attached to the piece of metal with force $F$ and uses full length for sawing (velocity: $v$). A periodic motion front - back - front - back - ... is exerted by the sawblade.

Question 1: Which material parameters of the steel and blade determine how much the saw will penetrate through the piece of metal during ONE saw motion with full length?

Question 2: How long will it take until the piece of metal is cut?

Are there formulas to compute such things?

• There might be. It helps to know the orientation of the saw relative to the steel, and the relationship between deltaL and h or b. It's also unclear whether F is the force driving the blade or pressing it against the metal. These should all be in a textbook somewhere. Jan 16, 2017 at 18:14
• It sounds a bit like you're trying to solve this from first principles. The discipline you're asking about is categorically known as ' feeds and speeds' and you can probably find some good references for the type of saw you're using (reciprocating saw??) by googling. Jan 16, 2017 at 20:28
• Is this for a school question or are you trying to figure out an industrial application? Aug 17, 2018 at 19:11