Attn: Jim Colt -Consumable Life-HPR 260HD

[Cotton]

Hi Jim I was wondering what kind of consumable life I should expect as far as pierce count cutting 0.75" Mild steel at 260 Amps? I am operating a HPR 260HD with a Promotion Contoller. Thanks!

[Cotton]

I found an article that was written by you in which one of the captions is "Cut quality will degrade prematurely as the consumables wear if using constant arc voltage. Most operators do not know that they should adjust arc voltage to compensate for consumable wear". How do I determine when I should adjust the voltage and should I increase or decrease the voltage? Thanks Jim for your help.

[jimcolt]

Consumable life with any plasma system is dependant on the power level, how many starts on the consumables as well as average cut duration (time for each cut cycle averaged). The HPR 260 provides the best consumable life in the plasma cutting industry....the brochure and other technical info that you can find on the http://www.hypertherm.com site (choose products, mechanized products, HPR260xd, the go to downloads) will provide good explanations and details as far as consumable life and cut quality. Here is a consumable life curve for the 260...there are different lines for different amperages...look at the bottom and guess your average cut duration in seconds...then move up to the left side for your amperage and it will estimate the number of starts. Above the curve the system will continue cutting...but cut quality changes.

Jim Colt

Hi Jim I was wondering what kind of consumable life I should expect as far as pierce count cutting 0.75" Mild steel at 260 Amps? I am operating a HPR 260HD with a Promotion Contoller. Thanks!

consumable life.jpg (21.49 KiB) Viewed 1085 times

consumable life.jpg (21.49 KiB) Viewed 1085 times

[jimcolt]

As the consumables wear the arc voltage based height control tries to maintain constant voltage....so you will see the torch getting closer and closer to the plate through the life of consumables. As a machine operator you should be watching the physical height of the torch....and as the consumables wear you should dial in more (higher ) voltage to maintain the correct height. Hypertherm cnc controllers and height controls have the ability to automatically calibrate the voltage on every cut....compensating for consumable wear....the other brands leave that task up to the operator.

Watch the physical standoff.....as you see the torch get closer to the plate (maybe aftyer 200to 300 starts the torch will be .010" closer than it was with new consumables).....increase the arc voltage setting about 5 volts for every .010" in height that you would like to achieve. Cut quality will remain more constant if the physical cut height remains constant.

Jim Colt

I found an article that was written by you in which one of the captions is "Cut quality will degrade prematurely as the consumables wear if using constant arc voltage. Most operators do not know that they should adjust arc voltage to compensate for consumable wear". How do I determine when I should adjust the voltage and should I increase or decrease the voltage? Thanks Jim for your help.

[Cotton]

As always thanks for the good information Jim!