Get the Best Performance from a Plasma Cutter

Use a plasma cutter properly

It’s a well-known fact today that the welding industry is always looking for more professionals to enter the field. That’s because the demand is always higher than what the market is offering to companies that need such skilled-employees. For those who are currently learning the trade or thinking of getting in, here is how you can optimize the performance of a plasma cutter.

Starting to use a Plasma Cutter

Plasma cutting in itself is not that difficult to learn. But to become good at it, is a completely different story. Anyone may try to work with this tool, but professionals will get results out of their plasma cutter, that no apprentice ever will. By following the few tips and suggestions below, you will become better, regarding precision, and also more efficient. Your plasma cutter will also work for a longer period of time.

The first thing you need to do, when you buy a plasma cutter, is to go through the instruction manual. It may seem obvious, but too many people don’t take the time to read how you are supposed to use a product (any of them). It is careless and dangerous in this case. Even if you are a professional of the trade, you still need to understand the specificities of the machine you just bought. That’s unless you have worked with the exact same model before.

A Few Tips

The first thing to keep in mind is that you should always use the appropriate amp tip, according to the thickness of the material you are cutting through. The thicker it is, the higher the amp should be. If you decide to use a 40-amp tip at an 80-amp setting, it will not work. The tip orifice will end-up being distorted, and you will need to replace it. If you try the reverse and use an 80-amp tip at a 40-amp setting, although it will technically work, the plasma stream won’t be focused and it will lead to a wider kerf, in the end.

To increase your consumable life, you need to use clean, dry air and make longer cuts. To do so will enable you to work for about two hours, continuously. But, if you restart the pilot arc, all the time, triggering the torch, you won’t get much out of your consumable. You also need to avoid touching the tip to the material, if you don’t have a drag shield in place. Otherwise, it will result in double arcing, again decreasing your consumable life.

Note: The difference between a clean cut and one that is not, will depend mostly upon the travel speed and the distance from the work surface.

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