Thanks Blue57.
Kim57, the cut is made by a plasma cutter. It's not as fine a cut as I'd like, meaning it has a burnt edge that does require some manual labor getting it clean looking as in the pictures. Especially stainless seems to have the dirtiest edges vs cutting aluminum or regular steel. But it does get you close enough to build stuff like these emblems.
I keep using the term Torchmate, for an idea of what the Torchmate does, for those not familiar, it is a computer controlled unit that replaces your hand and guides the plasma cutter by a design you program into a lap top computer.
For me, someone who knew nothing about computer aided design, it took months of determination to figure out how to design something like this emblem. Once I got it figured out, I use it very frequently now. Most everything I built starts with a shape made from construction paper, then to the scanner to the computer, then to the cutting table. Or as with the emblem, I had had to use individual design features and create the numbers and shapes then assemble them all on the computer as one cut design.
There are other cnc cutters like the Torchmate now, the choices have grown in the last couple years. Still the same idea of a computer controlled plasma wand.
For an idea of mine, you can see the hand held wand clamped to a fixture that is operated by a couple electric moters that operate the movement of the fixture. The computer operates the movement and it controls the turning on and off of the cutter also.
Me, the programmer decide the path, the speed of the cut to match the thickness of the material and which cut will be made when. For instance, you wouldn't want to cut the outer diameter of this plate in the next picture first, then the inner cuts. Always cut the inners first, otherwise the outer piece cut could fall away before making the inner cuts.
Kim, you probably are familiar with most of this, I just wanted to cover it for those who may not be familiar with these units.
