Welcome to Hypertherm!

Looks as though Hypertherm finally has their own Manufacturers Forum on the CNC Zone! I of course, will be lurking here daily.....I often can help with any Hypertherm questions.....if I cannot answer them I will find someone that will!

Background: I (Jim Colt) have been with Hypertherm for almost 32 years.....and have been involved in technical and sales and marketing positions as the company greww from 11 employees (I was the 11th!) to over 1200 associates (no longer employees....the associates now own the company). Hypertherm's main plant (actually we are up to 8 buildings for manufacturing) is in Hanover NH.....with our other buildings all within an 8 mile radius of the mothership. We also have warehouse and technical support and sales facilities throughout the world.....and are proud to say we export more than half of our product.

I cannot get enough of plasma...in fact I have a shop set up at home with a 4 x 4 cnc plasma system.....as well as welding and other metal fab equipment.

I look forward to a lot of comments, questions and discussion on this Forum section!

Jim

hi . need help . arc motor Turns too slowly

Just purchased a Powermax 85 and I'm in the process of setting it up. A little confused on the consumables. What is the difference between the Shield and Deflector when using a Mechanized torch and what are the applications? Of all the videos and demo's I've seen on plasma tables, none have shown the Deflector being used.

TomNJ,

Shield technology (originally developed by Hypertherm in the 1980's) with Hypertherm's air plasma systems has the following technical benefits:

- Does not allow the nozzle to contact the workpiece, this eliminates "double arcing" that rapidly destroys the nozzle orifice, which creates very poor cut quality with relatively new consumables.
- On most power levels (above Finecut consumables) the shield is designed in conjunction with the nozzle to utilize the shield cooling air flow to radially inject around the plasma jet just as it exits the nozzle orifice. This has a strong technical patent called "Conical Flow Technology" which increases the energy density of the plasma arc, reducing dross, improving edge squareness, improving cut speed and improving nozzle cooling (longer life)
- For hand cutting the shield is a bit different than for machine cutting, and is designed to drag directly on the work piece and to guide along the edge of a template or straightedge.
- For machine cutting the shield is designed with a smooth face to allow thicker piercing and less molten metal spatter buildup.

So, the shield is better in 99.9% of applications. There are some old timers that started plasma cutting before the shield technology was developed....a few simply don't use it because it is different. I have seen a couple of robotic cutting applications on 3 dimensional parts where the deflector allowed for better clearance in areas where the shape of the part affected how close the arc could get to the material.

Don't use the deflector, always use shielded technology is my advice. I have been plasma cutting for 41 years.....I like better technology that actually works!

Best regards, Jim Colt

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TomNJ

Just purchased a Powermax 85 and I'm in the process of setting it up. A little confused on the consumables. What is the difference between the Shield and Deflector when using a Mechanized torch and what are the applications? Of all the videos and demo's I've seen on plasma tables, none have shown the Deflector being used.

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I need help. I bought an Eagle Plasma 4x4 cnc table to use with my Hypertherm Powermax 380. I have everything built and set up with the torch wire in the machine spliced and connected to the relay terminals on the control box... but when I try to run a g-code the torch does not turn on. I have the ground attached to the metal, the air is sufficient, and the amperage is set correctly. According to my Mach 3 program, the torch should be on but it isn't cutting. If you have any ideas that could help me out, I would be very grateful. I've had the table for a good month now and haven't been able to use it yet.

Hello, I just got used hypertherm powermax 1000.
The guy who sold, told that it works ok, he was using it from 3 phase, but at my home I have just 1 phase power, so I rewired it for a use on single phase, simple, by disconnecting L3 wire(did that like it was shown in user manual).
Machine turns on ok, everything looks ok, till I press torch button, then it arcs just for a second and thats it,
On the machine illuminates error too low voltage, or phase missing(according user manual)
Any one has any suggestions?

there is a link on youtube with my problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuOW...ature=youtu.be