In today's conditions of scientific progress, different industries and technical capabilities of manufacturing operations are improving every day. Plasma cutting of metal is one of the recent discoveries. Since this type of material as "plasma" is known to few, even experienced workers in the field of metal rolling, I would like to tell you more about this revolutionary discovery.
Plasma cutting process
This type of cutting of rolled metal includes the latest developments in the study of plasma material. Plasma cutting machine is very similar to conventional equipment of the same type. However, here, instead of the usual cutter, a plasma jet is used, which is supplied under a pressure of several atmospheres. Plasma is a gas that is enriched with ions using an electric arc as it enters the nozzle. Simply put, it is a combination of gas and electric current. At the exit, the plasma temperature reaches 25-30 thousand degrees Celsius. Such a powerful machine can cut metal up to 20 cm thick. The use of a particular type of gas depends on the type of metal to be processed. For cutting ferrous metals, oxygen is used (the so-called "active gas"), but for non-ferrous metals and alloys, nitrogen, hydrogen, argon ("inactive gas") are suitable.
Advantages and disadvantages of plasma cutting
If you nevertheless decided to buy a plasmatron , then you need to know about all the advantages of this device. Due to the high precision of plasma processing of materials, the machine makes it possible to cut complex shapes from almost all types of metals. The main advantages of this type of processing are:
- high speed of operation;
- excellent quality of the cut surface;
- no chips, breaks and deformations of metal;
- use of inexpensive gases and the absence of bulky, inconvenient cylinders;
- reduction of thermal heating of the surface, in comparison with gas cutting;
- elimination of deformation of the cutter.
All these advantages will not only reduce material consumption during cutting, but also increase the quality of parts. However, there are some drawbacks to the plasma cutting process. If you use a plasma beam too high from the metal surface, or process it at an acute angle (over 50 degrees), then you will get wide seams, possibly even with deformation. But this drawback can rather be attributed not to the technological process, but to the incompetence of the worker. In order to get the best effect from the use of plasma cutting of metals, you must have at least a basic knowledge of this development. After all, if you have a sufficient level of qualification, then satisfaction will bring not only the quality of the finished part, but also the metal cutting process itself.
