[Dale Heart]

Originally Posted by Torchhead Multi-headed plasma needs syncro of the piercing with independant plasma units and THC adjust for each head. We did a conceptional design for a four headed one but the customer thought the NRE fee (engineering expense) as too high. I have helped build a two headed machine (one plasma one oxy) and the two heads were mounted opposite each other on the same carriage on the gantry. I think things move too fast for magnets be the primary holding feature. Some of the break-away heads use super strong magnets but there are locator pins to give it a pivot point. From a cost standpoint it's about as economical to have a RASP setup (Redundant Array of Small Plasmas). That is, several smaller tables working independantly! One operator can easily run two or three tables.

The magnets can actual be the locating pins. The main reason we want everything on one bridge and not on separate machines is space. The bed we are aiming at will be almost 20ft wide and a hell-of-a-long and the plasma units we would be using are only 100A as the majority of cutting will be oxy-fuel. It’s more like we want the plasma as a luxury for thin plate or stainless which we only do every now and then and a separate machine is a bit useless as it would sit ideal most of the time.