Areas of use
Thermal cutting and waterjet cutting

Historically, flame cutting was for a long time the only feasible process. Plasma cutting, followed by laser cutting and then waterjet cutting, only appeared later on, offering highly interesting advantages by broadening the range of metals (and materials) and thicknesses that can be cut. Finally, oxy-fuel cutting and plasma cutting allow precision in the millimetre range, while laser cutting can reach tenths of a millimetre without too many problems.

It can thus be seen that the comparison between the different cutting processes gives highly variable results depending on the criterion considered "major" for making this comparison (see table 6 , §