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Proper Cutting Techniques

Mon, 8 Nov 2010|

Dave Dalrymple discusses proper cutting techniques for power hydraulic cutters, including how to cut such pieces of the vehicle as hinges and latches.



[BLANK_AUDIO] [MUSIC] Okay rescuers, welcome to training minutes. My name is Dave Dalrymple. Today's evolution, we're gonna talk about proper cutting techniques with a power hydraulic cutter. Now most of you are thinking, Dave, I know how a power hydraulic works. I know it goes up and cuts things. What's the big deal? Well most of us when we learn to cut things with a power hydraulic cutter it was mostly sheet metal and it was a long time ago because up until fairly recently our cutters could not cut hardened materials, even hinges or latches. So let's watch as a crew takes a student through how to cut parts of the vehicle with a power hydraulic cutter. Okay, our student's gonna go up and start his first cut with an en a new car technology type of blade cutter. However. As you noticed, he's on the wrong side of the tool. You never want to be between the tool and the vehicle. Now one of the things that you'll notice with these new car technology type blades, because of the shape of the blade, many times. The tool will twist and tork on small items or sheet metal. One of the things to try to correct it is stop, reposition the tool. Maybe flip it over to get a different angle. To make your cut, especially if the tool starts to go in a direction you do not want it to go in. Remember, you want to let the tool do the work. You control the tool. You will not be able to force the tool to go one direction or the other. [NOISE]. One of the things as you make your cut, let the tool work all the way. That means even if you think the tool has stopped, let the tool continue to run for a short period of time to make sure the cut is complete and straight through. Whether it be sheet metal or hardened materials such as a hardened reinforcement or hinges or latches. Now in this particular instance the student is gonna cut a crash beam of a door. A crash beam of the door should be approached at a 90 degree angle. Basically at a right angle to what's being cut, and since it is high tensile material, it's gonna react violently when it's being severed. Now here the student is going to make a cut on the B post. One of the first things that he should check is where is the adjustable seatbelt bracket. Two, the choice of where, of tool that he's cutting with, he's using a combi tool. One of the things to remember, a combi tool will not make a complete straight cut. And also, as it squeezes. It will push away from where it's being cut. Remember your selection of cutter to what's being cut should always match. You need to think a little bit about where you're cutting, and what you're cutting with. If you only have one cutter then you have to do the best you can. But a [INAUDIBLE] tool type of cut here on this v post is very difficult to try and cut. One, the size of it and the shape of it. Because it's naturally going to push the tool away, but the other point was the. Choice of location, because he's trying to cut through these adjustable seat belt brackets. Now again, because we're cutting through a hardened material, we need to let the cutter work all the way through the cycle, so we need to keep the control handle held. Until we ensure that the tool is completely stopped. The other part of this cut is, many times because of the size of the cut and the size of the roof post. You're gonna need to approach the roof post cut from different angles and different directions. [NOISE] [BLANK_AUDIO] Now what we're gonna show you is, we're gonna show you the three different types of cutters we've used in this scenario today. The first one is a combi tool, which is basically a straight bladed cutter. The second tool is a new car technology type of cutter with new car technology blades. Then our last cutter is gonna be a nine inch UL cutter, or an earwig type of O cutter. [NOISE] Now as you can see from each cutter, each cutter has dynamics individual to it's own. Due to the shape and size of the blades involved. Hence giving them advantages and disadvantages for each type of cut, depending on the situation. Okay. When we're cutting hard things, such as crash beams, reinforcements, latches and hinges, a new vehicle type of blade is optimal for use. So here. We're gonna cut the hinge, and we're gonna cut the latch for this door. Now as you can see the door skin of this vehicle was peeled off, because we tried to do a, a door pop that failed, using a spreader. [SOUND] [SOUND] The tactic of way to go today is to expose hinges or latches with a spreader and then cut them such as we're doing now. [NOISE] It's much easier. It's much safer for the tool operator, the patient, and it's easier on the tool itself. Most of these cuts you've seen us do today. Our surrounding cuts where the actual tool has surrounded the object that is being cut. While we are cutting hinges and lashes we want to make sure our tool blade go completely around them. We don't want the tips to touch the tops and bottoms of the hinge or latch that will tip load the tool, and more than likely break the tool, the other type of cut, is a penetrating cut for example like we tried to perform with, the [UNKNOWN] tool on the B post [SOUND] Again, one of the things to listen for. As we make our cut, listen for the power unit. Many times our power units have a second stage. You might think the tool has stopped working, but it's actually moved into the second stage to increase it's power. And again, we're gonna cut the wires between the vehicle and the. And the door, due to the fact that power hydraulic cutters can make static electricity. We wanna try and eliminate that by using a hand tool. Okay, rescuers. We just watched our instructors show a student how to cut various components of the vehicle with a variety of different power hydraulic cutters. We cut it. We cut hard material, we cut sheet metal, We cut wide components, we cut narrow components. We also show you how to use edge protection, sharp edge protection. We showed you how to use proper patient protection that is going to protect the EMS provider and the patient. I'd like to thank you for watching training minutes. I'd like to thank Holmatro for sponsoring Fine Engineering's training minutes. Be safe out there.

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