hypertherm consumables

[jimcolt]

Tom....do you have the test criteria...cause we'd sure like to see it! What was the average cut duration, number of pierces, cut speed. Is the life tested until catastrophic failure...or until cut quality drops outside of a preset level? Were they tested to ISO9013 cut quality standards? How was the cut quality measured?

Your invited to come visit Hypertherm in New Hampshire where we have 11 cnc machines that are used for consumable development, as well as benchmark testing of ours and others consumables. We use the same machines to test all brands, we test cut quality after every 90 starts on a CMM machine.

Every machine shop can make statements that their product is better. Copying parts may make them less expensive....but not better!

Jim

[xjdubber]

Originally Posted by Torchhead TESTED: Tips for Hypertherm 1000 G3 cutting 10ga mild steel at recommended feedrates tested through 100+ tips and 35 electrodes. Prior to that OEM tips (Hypertherm) in larger qty's. 40A and 60A tips used. Used Thermacut swirl ring with their tips (required). Thermacut over the test time and qty showed equal cut quality, better life (by about 15%) and lower cost. Pierce counts per tip and electrode were somewhat better. Buying from them direct in bulk cuts per unit costs even lower. While the testing was not "lab", and is subjective, it's also about performance in the shop on the same machine over time. Other production shops have reported similar results. I like a lot of things about the Hypertherm 1000 series (best thing is how easy it is to hook up a CNC controller) but that doesn't mean there are not viable alternatives for consumables. Since I own a company that cuts production plasma and get to write the checks for expenses, the cost of consumables is in black and white. Daily expenses for those items dropped after switching to the Thermacut, while production remained the same. I don't work for or get paid by either company. TOM CAUDLE www.CandCNC.com

X2

And they actually do their own development, have you looked at their silver electrodes for the HPR series?

[jimcolt]

silver electrodes are patented by Centricut, a division of Hypertherm.

Jim