Will Plasma Cut This ?

[Babba]

Hello. I'm currently having radiator guards manufactured by an outside contractor on a very £expensive CNC laser and apart from losing a lot of the profit to them I'm suffering through lack of flexibility in quantities, lead times etc.

I'm mainly using 0.5mm - 1.2mm mirror polished 304 Stainless. My main concern is the finished cut needs to be visually perfect, they are coming off the laser and only needing bending.

Can this quality be achieved by Plasma?

[jcc3inc]

Sir,

In my experience with plasma cutting holes, there was always some less-then-perfect quality about small holes. You need leadin and leadout, and there always seemed to be a little "nick" at the start-stop point.

Why not have somebody do a series of small holes for you (pay some guy with as high definition unit) and decide there to start.

Could you have the holes punched???

Regards,
Jack C.

[mxtras]

You will have better edge quality with a properly set up laser than you will with a properly set up plasma. At least that has been my experience. Your mileage may vary.

Scott

[Torchhead]

The heat for plasma will discolor the SS. You are, after all, vaporizing the metal with a 30,000 deg flame!. One shop that I know that builds stuff for race cars (the expensive ones) uses plasma on stainless but they built a constant level water tray that actually keeps water at the back of the material. The cooling of the water keeps the steel from discoloring and warping as bad (stainless warps worse than mild steel). You will never get perfectly smooth edges but with the right tips and setup you can do pretty well on 10ga and thinner. If it's decorative and needs a totally smooth edge you have to do abrasive water jet or laser. It the edge hides or its really thin you can get good cuts with plasma. Dimensional accuracy is not much better than .020 with plasma but that works for a lot of parts that don't have to mate perfectly.

Tom Caudle
www.CandCNC.com

[duraflap]

Torchhead
I too am wanting to cut the mirror finish Stainless steel, (#8 finish). You say that you know a company that currently does this type of work. Is it possible for me to contact this company directly?
Thanks
Dennis
dennis@duraflap.com