Plasma Cutting

Air plasma cutting makes fast, high quality cuts on any conductive material. The plasma cutting process is also well suited to piercing and gouging operations. Advanced plasma cutting machines offer a number of additional benefits, including portability, adaptability, reliability and versatility.

Much like TIG welding, plasma cutting is a process in which an open arc is constricted by a small nozzle placed between an electrode and the workpiece. For decades, plasma cutters were equipped with transformers that made them heavy, bulky and difficult to move, but advanced inverter technology has reduced the size and weight of these plasma cutting machines.

For example, a plasma cutting machine equipped with advanced inverter technology and rated at 80 amps, may weigh less than 75 lbs. At that size, the plasma cutting machine is capable of cutting mild steel and stainless steel to 1.250-in. thick and aluminum up to 0.875-in. thick. A conventional, transformer-based plasma cutter with the same amp rating and cutting capability, on the other hand, would weigh approximately 450 lbs.

Another challenge that conventional plasma cutters pose is in establishing an electrical connection after moving it from one utility power source to another. The problem arises from the need to match utility input voltage with the conventional plasma cutter's power source and its cycling requirements, and often has little or nothing to do with the plasma cutter or the quality of available utility power. Advanced technology for input-power sources has greatly reduced and in some cases, eliminated these challenges.

In the past, operators needed to ensure that their plasma cutting tool would operate on an existing utility power supply voltage. Without the proper voltage match, the plasma cutting tool simply would not operate or it would be severely damaged when they tried to start it. Plasma cutting tool manufacturers initially circumvented the problem by offering machines that operated at multiple-voltages. These plasma cutting tools are typically designed to run off 230/ 460, 380 and 575 VAC, the common U.S. utility voltages.

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