'Plasma cutter versus oxy fuel torch'

Mica (63.176.159.10) -

What are the benefits that plasma cutters offer over oxy-fuel cutting methods? It is worth the investment to buy one? What types of things can you do that you couldn't with an oxy fuel cutter?

Comment #1 jimcolt (66.31.143.165) -

Each process....oxy-fuel and plasma...have their benefits and niche cutting thickness ranges. Plasma however has bennefitted from some major technology advances in just the last few years that has dramatically increased its capability in terms of cutting thickness capability, cut speed and low operating cost.

Advantages of plasma:

1. Plasma will cut any electrically conductive metal....so stainless, aluminum and steel all cut quite well.

2. Plasma can use a variety of gases to improve the cut quality and fine tune the process. The most common, and least expensive of plasma systems...are air plasma systems. These systems use regular compressed air (about 70 psi at 6 scfm) and electricity to produce the plasma arc. Industrial high definition class plasma systems often use oxygen as the plasma gas for more precise cutting of steel, and a variety of other gas mixes to improve performance on stainless, aluminum and other metals.

3. Plasma is faster than oxyfuel in most applications (depending on the plasma system power level) up to 2" thickness. Plasma can cut 1" carbon steel with very good precision at up to 85 inches per minute....pierce time takes less than 1 second on this material. Oxy-fuel will provide a good quality cut on 1" steel at around 13 to 16 inches per minute, with a pierce preheat time of about 10 seconds.

2. Plasma does an excellent job on gauge materials, with very precise cut quality and virtually no material warpage.

Check out this section on the www.hypertherm.com website....it covers many of the areas of comparison between oxy-fuel and modern plasma cutting.

www.plasmavsoxyfuel.com

Best regards, Jim Colt

Comment #2 solomon (219.95.163.157) -

how far the plasma produces heat radius

Comment #3 Brayan Peter from Arizona (Contact Member) -

One of the advantages of using a plasma cutter is that the surface of the metal outside of the cutting area remains relatively cool; this prevents the warping and paint damage that can occur with other flame cutters. A thin heat affected zone (HAZ) also allows the use of templates for precise curved line cutting. Plasma cuts up to five times faster than traditional torches and does not rely on highly-flammable gases. Many plasma cutters also perform well as gougers and can pierce metal quickly and accurately.

E-Mail:         

Name:            (required)

Title:           (required)

Message (do not enter emails or links or urls in the message!):