This is a general CNC Plasma question. I have a Tracker, which I'm very pleased with, but
I am having a problem forming material after it has been burned. Any ideas?
1- Burning 6” wide x 9’ long strips. They have approximately 12 holes in each one.
7-2- Material is 10 ga. Hot roll sheet.
2- Form to a 4” wide channel with 1” legs.
3- After pcs were cut, they lay flat on the table.
4- When one leg was formed, they looked pretty good, but a little bow.
5- When the second leg was bent, it bowed up like a banana.
6- There was almost an inch of bow in the 9’.
7- If we flipped the pcs over, so that the slag side (bottom when burning) was up, the bow was not as bad, maybe ¼” to 3/8”.
8- We already had all the pieces burned, so we did some experimenting. We ended up putting the strips through the roll, and rolling them to a 5’ radius (see picture), and then forming them. They still had a tiny bow, but were acceptable.
9- For kicks, we formed one as a “Z” before rolling. This piece had almost no bow.
10- We had this problem before, but not nearly so severe when doing similar pieces from 14 ga. Those had a slight bow, but were able to be pulled out in the jig.
I feel our problem is coming from the heat along the edges. The only solution I see is to lay out the holes on a whole sheet, let it burn the holes, then come back and shear the strips. Do you have any other suggestions?