Unique Advantages of Hypertherm Plasma Cutting Over Traditional Cutting

December 2022 - Welding Alloys Manufacturers In India

Month: December 2022

Unique Advantages of Hypertherm Plasma Cutting Over Traditional Cutting

Posted on by adorfon

Table of Contents

  • Plasma Cutting Process
  • Understanding Plasma Process – Advantages & Disadvantages
  • Gas Cutting or Oxy fuel Cutting Process
  • Gas Cutting or Oxy-fuel cutting Advantages
  • Gas Cutting or Oxy-fuel cutting Disadvantages
  • Key Benefits of Hypertherm Powermax SYNC
  • Summary        

 

Plasma Cutting Process:

Electricity and pressurized gas combine to form a plasma arc of ionized gas. This super-hot
plasma instantly melts metal. The gas shapes the arc and blows molten metal away, leaving a smooth cut edge.

plasma cutting process

Plasma cutting systems consists of:-

  1. Plasma Cutting power source
  2. Compressed air to enable cutting

Understanding Plasma Process – Advantages & Disadvantages

To understand the unique advantages of Plasma Cutting process we need to compare to the conventional Oxy-Acetylene cutting process used in Industry.

Plasma cutting using plasma cutting power source with compressed air is used for cutting all electrically conductive material both ferrous and non-ferrous metals, while in Oxy-fuel cutting with a Gas Cutting torch, oxygen and acetylene gas is used for cutting steel/ferrous material therein lies the major difference.

Now let us understand in both Plasma cutting process & Oxy-Fuel cutting process in detail.

Plasma Cutting: Capabilities & Advantages

  • Cut and gouge any electrically conductive metal – MS, SS, AL, alloys, others
  • Plasma Cutting can cut rusted plates , paint surface & even fatigued stacked metal
  • Cutting done with compressed air. No use of costly gases like Acetylene or Oxygen
  • Can do clean cut up to 50m thick, without pre-heating faster than any process.
  • Easy to use with simple plug and play method
  • Easy to automate
  • Small heat-affected zone
  • Can be used for cutting wire mesh and even complex filter systems
  • Plasma Cutting machines are available with portable capability
  • Portable Plasma system with inbuilt compressor for all site applications
  • Faster process and easy to teach & train welders
  • Very safe process for the welder and user
  • Some plasma cutting equipment like Hypertherm has capability of operating on input voltage from 200 V to 600 V. This means the same machine can be used with single phase as well as three phase circuitry.

Plasma Cutting: Disadvantages

  • Can’t heat metal for bending
  • Initial Cost of these systems is very high even though it offers good return on investment.
  • Can’t efficiently cut much thicker than 75mm MS
  • Requires Electrical Energy or Electricity for cutting process.
  • Requires compressed air for cutting
  • Slightly complex settings for the welder in comparison to oxy-fuel cutting
  • Metal warping and heat affected zone

Gas Cutting or Oxy fuel Cutting Process:

oxy fuel cutting process

Oxy-fuel cutting torch heats a ferrous metal to ignition temperature (or) plastic state with an oxy-acetylene gas induced flame. So with a press of lever we introduce the cutting oxygen this further combusts and reacts with the metal to create iron oxide (slag) that blows and cut the metal away.

In this process a Gas Cutting system, Oxygen gas cylinders and Acetylene cylinders are primarily used for the cutting purpose

The hazards caused by this process are

  • Chances of fire accident as welder handles heat, sparks, molten metal, or even direct contact with the flame
  • Process becomes very dangerous while cutting tanks or drums which contain Flammable materials
  • Fire/explosion caused by gas leaks, backfires and flashbacks
  • Fumes created during flame cutting
  • Fire/burns resulting from misuse of oxygen
  • Burn Injuries due to accidental contact with the hot flame or hot metal
  • Injuries caused during transportation and handling of heavy gas cylinders

oxy fuel cuttingGas Cutting or Oxy-fuel cutting Advantages

  • Can effectively cut steel only and effective when cutting over 50mm.
  • Use anywhere cylinders are available.
  • Relatively low initial acquisition cost
  • Heat metal for bending.

Gas Cutting or Oxy-fuel cutting Disadvantages:

  • Cuts only mild steel.
  • Metal must be pre-heated to pierce.
  • Hard to cut heavily painted rusted or stacked metal.
  • Speed of cutting lower in comparison to plasma cutting
  • Hand cutting requires skill – stand off
  • Must use flammable gasses.
  • Metal warping and heat affected zone

Hypertherm’s Powermax SYNC the latest generation of Plasma Cutting machines are loaded with features & benefits for customers.

Key Benefits of Hypertherm Powermax SYNC

powermax syncEasy to use

  • Easy-to-identify the single-piece cartridge consumables as they are color-coded. This eliminates confusion on identifying parts and simplify consumable inventory.
  • New SmartSYNC® torches with the Hypertherm cartridge synchronises the correct amperage and operating modes eliminating setup errors
  • Highly versatile can do a wide range of jobs with easily interchangeable torches and application-specific cartridge consumables.
  • Life of Consumables can be monitored as end-of-life detection signal lets you know the time to change your cartridge

Productivity gains

  • Very simple operation ensures minimum downtime, troubleshooting and training time.
  • Advanced cartridge design increases life to twice for hand cutting, and improved quality of cutting and life in mechanized setups compared to conventional consumables.
  • Each cartridge has been custom designed to optimize the cutting or gouging performance

Innovative smart system

  • End-of-life detection signal gives the operator right time to change the cartridge
  • Advanced torch communication for automated process setup
  • Time-saving controls directly on the torch allow you to adjust amperage and change the consumable without returning to the power supply
  • Live access to cartridge performance, enables tracking and analysing usage patterns
  • Cartridge reader app pairs with Powermax SYNC smartphone app to record & analyse performance data.

Industry-leading reliability

  • Engineered for rugged, industrial environments
  • SpringStart™ technology gives consistent results in repetitive applications.

Summary:

  • Oxy-fuel and plasma cutting are all well-established cutting processes used for Cutting steel. Each has its merits and demerits, but are used as per specific Business needs.
  • Oxy-fuel has the lowest investment and operating cost, though the costs of cutting per part in the end are higher due to slow cutting speeds and lower cut quality, which often requires more Secondary operations meaning more expenditure on labour. Oxy-fuel is predominantly used for cutting only thick carbon steel when cut quality is not the Criteria.
  • Plasma provides a ideal balance in terms of capital cost, cut quality, productivity and operating costs. It has significant thickness cutting range and can variety of ferrous and non-ferrous, so it’s very versatile process with higher cutting speeds.

Hence with safety and personal protection of the user becoming vitally important, industry is moving more and more towards Plasma cutting for most of the hand cutting applications.

Ador Fontech Limited, the name synonymous with total solutions for any Maintenance & Repair solutions, recommends Hypertherm plasma cutting with Duramax Torch and consumables as a robust plasma cutting solution to all our customers for all Cutting and Gauging applications in their premises.

Brazing Process & Types of Brazing Rods

Posted on by adorfon

Table of Contents

  • Principle of Brazing Process
  • Brazing
  • Four Requirements of Non-fusion welding
  • Important Properties in Brazing Rods
  • Key steps to successful Brazing Application
  • Advantages of Non-fusion – Brazing Process
  • Disadvantages of Non-fusion – Brazing Process\
  • Types of Brazing Rods

 

Brazing is based on the principle of solid phase welding process. Let us understand the process in further detail.

Principle of Brazing Process:

  • Solid phase welding is carried out
    • Below the melting point of base metal
    • Without using any filler additions
    • Often with the use of pressure
    • Union is often formed by plastic flow

Welding comes under Fusion process, whereas Brazing comes under Solid phase welding process.

Brazing:

In Brazing process, the joining happens with diffusion welding methodology, The joining takes place by atomic diffusion of the two surfaces in contact. Surfaces are usually heated to high temperatures but kept below the melting point of the base metal & pressure may be employed to ensure joining.

  • Brazing: This is a process that happens between 450 degrees and 750 degrees temperature. In this process, alloys with silver or copper base are used for Brazing.

Four Requirements of Non-fusion welding:

1. Clean Surface: In a non-fusion process, the metals bond with each other through adhesion, which occurs because of the molecular attraction between the bodies in contact.

    • Molecular bonding requires a clean surface.

2. Filler Rods: Filler rods are available for many non-fusion processes.

    • Brazing: Brazing rods are available as bare rods or flux coated rods.
    • Soldering: Solder can be solid or flux core/paste which can be tin, silver or zinc alloy.

3. Flux: Flux must be used with all non-fusion welding processes.
The purpose of flux is to:

    1. Chemically clean the metal
    2. Shield the process oxidation and atmospheric contamination
    3. Filler rods are available for many non-fusion processes.
    4. Brazing: Brazing rod is available as bare rods or flux coated.

4. Heat Source: The temperature of the base metal needs to be raised sufficiently above the melting point of the filler rod. Several heat sources can be used, as detailed below:

    • Oxyacetylene
    • Air acetylene
    • Air propane (LPG)
    • Oxy-propane
    • Electric soldering iron
    • Electric soldering gun

Important Properties in Brazing Rods:

  • Capillary Action: The capillary effect is a function or the ability of the liquid molten brazing material to wet a particular base material. Capillary action takes place when the metal surfaces, clean surfaces and flux are in close proximity to each other.

Key steps to successful Brazing Application:

  • Tinning: In the brazing process, before assembling the joint/seam, there is a step that requires both the surfaces to be coated with a thin layer of filler using the brazing rod. Popularly known as tinning, this step is followed by brazing to assemble sheet metal joints/seams.
  • Controlling Heat: Metals are excellent conductors of heat
    • When heat gets applied to a joint, it will move away to heat up the surrounding metal.
    • The greater the mass of metal that must be heated–the greater the heat requirement.

By applying excessive heat, we can make the flux burn. It could contaminate the joint requiring us to clean the joint again before brazing. There is a need for better manipulation of the heat source, if we are to heat both pieces evenly.

Advantages of Non-fusion – Brazing Process:

  • Lower temperature process
  • Easy assembly of parts
  • Weld dissimilar metals
  • Allow disassembly/realignment
  • Join metals of different thicknesses
  • Join diverse types of metal

Disadvantages of Non-fusion – Brazing Process:

  • Results in lower tensile strength
  • Not an efficient method for thick metal
  • Not an efficient method for large parts.

Types of Brazing Rods:

Brazing Rods are available in both ferrous and non-ferrous process for joining/welding different base materials.

  1. Aluminium
  2. Copper & its alloys
  3. Silver Brazing Alloys
  4. Steel

Hence is widely used in industries for joining various components. ADFL serves the industry by manufacturing and supplying the entire range of Brazing products, suitable for use in all three processes.