Heavy Dross / Poor Cut Quality With Hypertherm Powermax 85

[oronokoiron]

Hello,

I recently purchased a CNC table from Bulltear, and equipped it with a Powermax 85 plasma cutter from Hypertherm. I can' seem to get the thing dialed in to save my life. Using bottled Nitrogen, and even on thinner metals (18-10 gauge) I get a significant amount of dross at the recommended speeds & voltages. When I try to cut anything thicker, like 1/4" - 1/2" mild steel, I have to slow it down to <30IPM or it won't even cut halfway through the material. The dross is so bad that you can't even break it off with a hammer. Maybe my expectations were too high out of the gate because I had read so many encouraging things about the incredible cut quality people are getting with these units, but so far I'm thoroughly disappointed. I've followed the manual to a T, and still my results are far less than stellar. What am I doing wrong? HELP - PLEASE!!!

Thanks,

Rusty

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[Simonh1959]

Why are you using Nitrogen? We used to have a Hypertherm Powermax 105 (before we upgraded to an HPR 130) and the only time we used Nitrogen was to cut stainless steel.
I would suggest that you change to CLEAN compressed air and I think that a lot of your problems would then disappear.

[Torchhead]

Poor penetration and heavy dross indiacte that you are not getting full power into the cut. It can be caused by:
1. Workclamp not clipped to the piece you are cutting
2. Wrong consumables for automated cutting
3. Loose connection on workclamp (either end)
4 Cut height too high (should be .063 from nozzle tip to material)
5. Really bad (wet) air or worn consumables

The 85 is a good machine and cuts tin stuff like butter and up to 3/4" nicely

Put your DTHC in Manual mode and make some cuts with it turned off at a fixed height. If you have bad cuts it is external to the control and THC

[2e0poz]

There is also the question of what presure you have the air at? if it is not high enough to clear it then it will stick.

[BTA PLASMA]

Nitrogen will yield very poor results when cutting steel. Youll have much more dross, warpage and problems. Oxygen in the shop compressed air gives the plasma an exothermic reaction to the steel that will give you a superior cut in steel compared to nitrogen. Stainless steel is where nitrogen shines in the smaller plasmas (125 amps and lower).

[plasmamatt]

It sounds like a ground problem. I have had a couple times where I forgot to connect the ground clamp and had very similar results. With everything set right the Powermax 85 does a beautiful job. With new consumables I can often times cut 1/4" plate at 90ipm with little to no dross at all and the cut edge is glassy smooth.

[oronokoiron]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my initial post, and sorry for the delay in updating it. Shortly after I posted last week, I switched back to shop air, and since then have experienced much better cut quality. It's still not as good as I'd like, but hopefully we're heading in the right direction. I haven't cut any more stainless yet, but when I do I will try both Nitrogen and shop air and report back as to my results. Thanks again to all who posted with helpful tips, and Happy New Year!

[jimcolt]

Sorry I did not catch this sooner. Sounds like you have it under control....as said in one of the responses....air is the best plasma gas to use with your Powermax85....the 20% oxygen content in the air gives an exothermic boost to the cutting process which minimizes dross.

Dross is also affected by cut speed and cut height. Running slower than the speeds recommended in the manual....or at heights higher than listed in the manual will result in dross, a wider cut kerf and warpage.

Jim Colt Hypertherm

Thanks to everyone who responded to my initial post, and sorry for the delay in updating it. Shortly after I posted last week, I switched back to shop air, and since then have experienced much better cut quality. It's still not as good as I'd like, but hopefully we're heading in the right direction. I haven't cut any more stainless yet, but when I do I will try both Nitrogen and shop air and report back as to my results. Thanks again to all who posted with helpful tips, and Happy New Year!