Esab Avenger with Hyperthem HPR800XD

[kylemp]

At work were looking at a ESAB avenger machine, and I am wondering if anyone knows if you can change out the plasma system for the Hyperthem HPR800XD, and how much modification is necessary.. Has anyone toyed with the esab interface for its plasma systems? Can it just be brought straight over?
Im wondering if things like the internal voltage divider would still work, or if I would have to wire directly into the tip volts like I did on my powermax, and things like that.. anyone have any experience with these?

[jimcolt]

There are many Esab machines operating with Hypertherm plasma system upgrades. Esab does not install Hypertherm plasma on their new machines...as they have there own line of plasma equipment....but it is very common to retrofit to Hypertherm products on older Esab machines in the field.

There are a few possibilities...one is to work with a system integrator that is familiar with both brands of equipment...the electrical interface on these large plasma/cnc machine is considerably more complex than for an air plasma system, such as a Powermax unit. Many Esab machine owners also upgrade to a Hypertherm Edge Pro cnc control, a hypertherm torcch height control, as well as MTC (a Hypertherm company) nesting software. If you have the Full Suite of Hypertherm components on your Esab avenger...the interface is as simple as an ethernet style cable between the Plasma, the cnc, the THC, and you can then take advantage of fully automated cutting operations with automatic gas, current, and torch height control settings, as well as the TrueHole process which allows for plasma cut holes with virtually no taper and no entry/exit ding or divot. Hypertherm | Plasma Cutters | Plasma Cutting Equipment | Metal Cutting Equipment check out the Full Suite and True Hole information.

Jim Colt

[kylemp]

Thanks Jim
Iwas aware of the ESAB plasma, but never really looked too far into them seeing as the hypertherm is apparently 1 million times better according to.. everyone I have talked to about it.
I am going to look into the controller, I would assume that I can just integrate the 2 pieces together, using the ESAB controller with the hpr800.. might take some "creativity" but im sure it could be done, rather than buying a hypertherm controller. I would expect the same can be done with the THC, since all it relies on is tip volts (as far as I know, thats what my machine did.) and that makes the whole thing a LOT more cost effective if possible.
I know from past experience that hypertherm does a REALLY god job of providing technical information on their smaller systems (like I said, the powermax was amaxingly well documented) so I would assume roughly the same level of information for all systems.. But the ESAB systems, I dont know anything about them..