3/16 Alum sign cutting

[divermach]

I'm cutting .1875 6061 alum and the cut is very rough. Using a miller 2050- settings amps 55, imp 65 and air on plasma cam table. Has anyone used a mixed gas or Helium to cut alum? or maybe suggest what worked for you. The outside edge cuts can be rough( I'll clean those up) but the letters in the the sign would need to be nice.

Thanks,

[weldguy]

You should get great cut quality on aluminum that thickness using just clean, dry, compressed air.

Your cut speed seems very slow for 55 amps, you should be able to run at twice that speed assuming your consumables are in good condition and your air pressure is set properly. When your cut speed is slow your arc can waiver side to side "hunting" for material and cause unsatisfactory edge quality like you are describing.

Clean air, cut speed, air pressure, and cutting height are VERY important to obtain quality cuts. Let us know what fixes it for you.

[jimcolt]

3/16" aluminum parts cut with a Hypertherm Powermax45 on a PlasmaCam DHC2 at 45 amps. No cleanup required....edges are slightly more porous looking than steel...but very nice.

Jim Colt

IMG_2766.jpg (46.02 KiB) Viewed 2347 times

IMG_2766.jpg (46.02 KiB) Viewed 2347 times

IMG_2768.jpg (48.07 KiB) Viewed 2347 times

IMG_2768.jpg (48.07 KiB) Viewed 2347 times

[Dawgonhawg]

They look good. I'll be cutting my first alum soon.

[legendscar82]

Jim are you using just compressed air??? When u say no clean-up... You mean you literally took these pieces right off the table and took a picture?

[jimcolt]

Used compressed air, cutting specs right out of the Hypertherm manual (speed, cut height, pierce height, amperage) and no clean up.....except for rubbing a little bit of aluminum "fuzz" off the bottom edge.

The cutting machine needs to be able to maintain proper speed (if it has sluggish acceleration...expect holes and fine features to be affected) and even more important is the ability to pierce at correct height, the index down and maintain the cut height within about .010" of the specified height....which is .060".

I may add....all plasma systems are not equal. I would not expect the same quality with a different brand...or even a different Hypertherm torch design. These cuts were done with the Powermax45 which uses a technology called "conical flow"....which increases arc energy density. I would be comfortable using the newer Hypertherm units (Powermax65 and 85) as well with the 45 amp consumables...the torch is a different design but the consumables use the same technology.

You could dial other systems in as well.....but the cut speeds, cut heights, etc would be different for each torch, and I would expect slightly different levels of success.

Jim

[divermach]

thanks,

gong to try increasing my speed and see that helps. thanks for the info guys.