Hypertherm consumable life - air cylinders

[energyforce]

My consumable life is quite short. I get about maybe 60 pierces and less than 1 sheet of cutting (4x8' , 1/4" mild steel) before requiring a consumable change. From reading other posts, it appears that my consumable life should be a LOT longer.

I follow hypertherms recommended variables from the manual (psi, ipms, volts, etc).

I have THC and it works well.
I have a refridgerated air dryer and it never gets hot.
My air compressor, on the other hand does get hot. But the air coming out of the hose 50 feet away (by the hypertherm) feels cold and dry (but what do i know if its dry or not).

I am getting frustrated. I am thinking about buying a bottle of dry clean air and trying that. If my consumable life increases vastly then I suspect that I may be running poor quality air.

What do you think about this?

Erik

[Edwardo]

Hi Erik

I havent got a air dryer yet, its on my wish list, all i have is a small Motor Gaurd filter, but so far i have had good luck with consumable life with my hypertherm, and i know i have some moisture in the air. Im wondering about your peirce height, it should be twice your cutting height, are you using sheilded or unsheilded consumables? How is your cut quality, is there alot of dross (slag)? Most of the cutting i do is 1/16 to 1/8 mild steel with fine cut consumables but it really shouldnt matter, ive had consumables make over 1200 peirces and still be usable. I did read somewhere that a guy had restriction of the air between his plasma cutter and the nozzle which gave him problems like yours also, but how they checked it out or fixed im not sure.

EDD

[IronDesign]

Hi Erick!

I used to run a log book for every tip, but in general they come out about the same every time, so discontinued a few years ago. I run a twin tower recharge dryer with a second super trap right on the Hypertherm machine (1000) This should not really be any dryer air than what your refrig-dryer will produce if your machine is SIZED correctly. Have you done any paper test, under the nozzle? (any light colored paper-letting air from the cooler blow on it for a minute or two with zero coloration change or spots)
I generally run 15000 inches per tip. But am told anything over 5-8000 is good. Actual pierce counts I am not sure- but many...to achieve above lengths as I make small parts only...3 to 30" in length. I can tell you if you run 60 am in a 40 amp tip..your results would be like your getting, they just can not handle the extra. Hypertherm sells both! I have found the fine cuts when tuned right in there...will provide the longest life. But you need to keep a log book to calculate what settings did best. I think the other fellow had good thoughts too.. if your firing from to high/low ect. Digital height control also helps with the tuning so can keep a constant level of production.
Best of luck.
Scott

[Alan Bradford]

Hi Erik,
When you say consumable life is short, what are you using up?
More electrodes or nozzles?
Poor air quality generally uses up electrodes faster than nozzles.
Your refrigerated air dryer is to take the moisture out of the air.
If there is any oil, from the compressor, you will need an air/oil seperator or filter.
Oil will shorten electrode life drastically.
Using a cylinder of air will prove if that is your problem. Make sure your air lines are clean.

If you are going through more nozzles than electrodes then that will indicate a diffrent problem.

The service manual or a call to tech support will help you work through thoes problems.

[PlasmaGuru]

What kind of plasma system are you using? On what style machine?

[energyforce]

Its a hypertherm 1250.
My electrodes are holding up good.
My nozzles are not!
Im using a hand torch for now (it came with the machine) but with unshielded nozzles.

I have a water bed and the material is approximately 1/2 an inch above the water. The hypertherm blows air for 10 seconds after it finishes a cut. Water splashes everywhere including onto the torch tips. Do you think water may be contaminating the torch tip even with air blowing on it?

How do you turn off the 10 second air purge thing on the hypertherm? Or is that a bad idea? Should I immediately somehow rush away from the cutting location before water blows everywhere?

Erik

[johnscnc]

hi i run a hypertherm 1000 cutting 1/4 plate and found that following the amps & feedrate in the plasma manual was kinda hard on tips especialy piercing i run 55 ipm and about 52 amps air psi? high i get 2-300 pierces per tip and roughly 2500 inches of cut. maybe not to great our air is not very good either. just my two cents

[Alan Bradford]

Hi,
I rebuild plasma and flame cutting machines. I used to work for Hypertrherm a long time ago. (Jim Colt hired me).

Anyway if your electrodes are ok but nozzle life is short then your air is fine.
Also the water splashing on the torch is doing no damage so dont worry about that. The 10 second post flow is to cool down the torch body and consumables. You do not want to stop that. It is cheaper than a new torch.

Look at your nozzles closely. Is the erosion happening from the face of the nozzle inward or is it starting from the inside and going outward? Or does it look like a notch has formed in the nozzle orifice?

3 diffrent problems.
If you are using the unshielded parts then Ill guess that your nozzles are notching. This is a common problem and is the reason Hyp came up with shielded parts.
It is called double arcing. The nozzle is at ground potential during pilot arc, and isolated while cutting. When the nozzle touches or comes near the plate, or any slag sticks to the face, the arc will jump through the nozzle then to the work piece. This causes the arc to breech the boundery layer of air that isolates the copper within the nozzle. You may see a quick green flash sometimes. This is copper burning. Once this happens the nozzle will never cut straight again.
The Arc is at about 25,000 Degrees F and when it touches copper, copper looses every time.
The cure is to use shielded parts. Yes they cost more, but if you use less of them due to longer life, the end result is a cost savings. (No I dont work for Hypertherm any more or receive a commission on consumables I dont sell).

If your porblems are erosion of the nozzles then check with Hypertherm Tech Support. I am not up on my PowerMax trouble shooting as I dont use them very often in machine retrofits.
We mostly use the HPR and HT series of water cooled torches.

Good Luck,

[quisman]

Alan, very well said and great information.
Another good thing to test out is the pilot arc IGBT if notching/poor life is a result.
This is a result of the machine continuing the double arcing process because it "thinks" it is constantly trying to establish and arc (because the IGBT has failed) even though it is transferring. This would be your last stop in the testing phase that is less common of an error....and should be done by a service technician.