Trouble with Powermax1650

[derekjonesy5]

I have a 1650 thats about 4 years old now. Its on a torchmate xs table with a T100 Machine Torch. The cut quality is extremely erratic! Often during cuts, the arc seems to lose power and lags way behind or even fails to cut through. It seems to flash and his and sputter. The arc jumps around, side to side. And I think my consumable life is pretty poor. Sometimes I'll only get 10 or 15 pierces on 1/2" out of one.

The problem kinda came out of nowhere so i thought something must be wrong with the machine. We took the cover off and found a poor ground connection to the board, which had led to some burning of the board. Had that replaced. Machine seemed to work better for a couple days. Then started having issues again.

I had the amperage at the torch lead tested and it came out bang on 100AMP. This made me think that the arc lagging behind and sputter must be an air issue...I thought the selanoid that controls the air flow might be worn/broken. Replaced that. No difference.

A hypertherm tech came to my shop and said it must be an air issue as the board, lead, and selanoid had all been replaced. He said it must be too much moisture. So i bought a Ingersol Rand refridgerant air dryer and an oil removing filter. The problems now gotten worse.

For whatever reason 80Amp seems to cut better.

Another thing that throws me off is that when cutting with 80Amp, my arc voltage needed to maintain a reasonable torch height from the plate, is nowhere near what is recommended by hypertherm...

So confused and at my wits end. Any advice would be appreciated.

[jimcolt]

My guess would be that you have an air flow restriction or leak....somewhere between the inlet air fitting and the torch nozzle. A tip off to this is that you say it works better at 80 Amps.

I would look carefully at the entire air flow system, dissasemble and clean or replace the filter element and ensure the internal moisture trap is operational.

Make sure all air fittings in the torch leads and on the back of the torch body are tight, ensure that the o-ring on the torch body is in good condition, replace if any doubt.

If you don't find anything along these lines, it is entirely possible that there is something leaking or restrictive in the torch lead or the torch body itself. The best way to troubleshoot this would be to swap out the entire torch and lead assembly....and see if the problem goes away......do you know someone with the same setup, or does your local distributor have one?

I am assuming that you are using Hypertherm consumables.....and that you have tried changing things such as the retaining cap (they last a long time, but when they go bad they will exhibit symptoms such as you describe.

Keep me posted!

Jim Colt Hypertherm

[derekjonesy5]

Thanks for the reply Jim. I swapped out the torch lead and tried a couple cuts on 5/8" plate and they came out pretty nice. I noticed the threads on the brass piece that you screw the consumables on to are kinda worn. I'm hopeful moisture in the air was the original issue, and that the threads just happen to wear out at the exact time the dryer was installed. Guess I'll find out Monday...

[derekjonesy5]

The poor performance out of my machine had me looking at a possible upgrade to my power source. A guy locally is selling an HSD130. From what you know, will it work with my torchmate controller and lift station? I've heard as long as the table is grounded well, the high freq start shouldnt be an issue? My local Praxair sales guy says that hypertherm doesnt recommend that machine on my table, and keeps pushing me buy a new table from him...And the guys at torchmate say I'll have to buy their "High Frequency Lift Station" for $4800. Any truth to this, or are they just after my money?

[jimcolt]

It is really Torchmates decision as to whether their machine will work with the HSD130. The 130 is an industrial, 100% duty cycle oxygen plasma. It will produce very nice cut quality and dramatically longer consumable life as compared to an air plasma system, but it, like all industrial plasma systems...uses a high freuency discharge to start the plasma process. Torchmate has a few HSD 130's on their machines in the field.

Jim Colt