New developments widen the versatility of plasma cutting

Technological advancements are commonplace in this day and age, with manufacturers constantly devising new products in order to stay ahead of competition. This is the same with plasma metal cutting systems. The first of such equipment was made available in the 1960s. Since then, technological advancements have enhanced the capabilities of plasma cutting, earning it a reputation of being easy to use on virtually any metal type, and of being highly productive as well. The countless plasma cutting systems that are employed around the globe today indicate that plasma is now a universally accepted metal cutting process with an incredibly wide range of applications. But while the technology had already been commercially viable for the past five decades, it wasn’t until the last 10 to 15 years that the market witnessed engineering breakthroughs that truly boosted the performance of plasma cutting.

Before exploring one of the most recent developments, let us first take a look at the three plasma technologies - air, conventional mechanised and high definition plasma - that are most widely used in the market today.

Air plasma

Air plasma systems are primarily designed for manual cutting applications. The power levels of these equipment range from 12 to 120 amps, and even at the lowest output level, air plasma is able to cut materials that are 0.32cm thick. Most of these rely on an inverter power supply technology, allowing them to be portable. Machine torches are also compatible with air plasma systems, which have electrical interfaces that allow for mechanised cutting applications.

Conventional mechanised plasma

Unlike air plasma, conventional mechanised plasma systems are available only with machine-mountable torches, and have more complex interfaces in order to provide better performance when used together with computer-numeric controls (CNC). Such plasma equipment have output levels ranging from 130 to 1,000 amps, and are designed for high productivity with mid-level tolerances, as well as for cutting non-ferrous materials as thick as 15.9cm. As a result, mechanised plasma is widely utilised in heavy equipment manufacturing operations, shipyards, and steel service centres.

For the most part, this class of plasma systems requires an astute operator as arc voltage, gas flows and pressures, amongst other parameters, must be correctly defined and carefully monitored in order to produce the best and most consistent cut quality. This is because power levels, material thickness, and torch consumabNike Zoom Vomero 11