Cutting aluminum with Nitrogen??

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ShawnM
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Location: Clearwater, FL

Cutting aluminum with Nitrogen??

Post by ShawnM »

I am testing nitrogen through my Powermax 85 today with 1/2" aluminum plate. I have a large job coming up and need a good clean cut on these parts. So far the cut quality is much better on the aluminum with nitrogen than with compressed air through my dryer. Almost looks like it was cut with a water jet. Wanted to try H-35 but Hypertherm says "no can do" on the Powermax series. Anyone else using nitrogen or any other gases on their Acorn CNC plasma? Are you seeing better results?
Joey
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Re: Cutting aluminum with Nitrogen??

Post by Joey »

Have any pictures of those cuts? I've been cutting .06 thick aluminum. And I was curious how to make the cuts cleaner.
ShawnM
Posts: 2190
Joined: Fri May 24, 2019 8:34 am
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
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CNC Control System Serial Number: 7804734C6498-0401191832
DC3IOB: No
CNC12: Yes
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Location: Clearwater, FL

Re: Cutting aluminum with Nitrogen??

Post by ShawnM »

Hi Joey, I wont be back at the shop until tomorrow to get you some pics. I'm at home today working on the CAD files for the parts I need to cut. I'll upload them to my Google album.

I would think you'd get an amazing edge quality on .060 aluminum since you can really see the edge. :D I've cut a lot of .125 aluminum with great results simply with shop air through my dryer. I assume you are using a dryer on your air source?
Joey
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Re: Cutting aluminum with Nitrogen??

Post by Joey »

We have an air dryer with our shop air. The cuts are looking great I think. I've just heard from a user that aluminum might need a custom smoothing profile. For the aluminum I've cut so far I'm not seeing a reason for that. Just didn't know if you felt the same way or was the gas the difference for thicker aluminum
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ShawnM
Posts: 2190
Joined: Fri May 24, 2019 8:34 am
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
Allin1DC CNC Controller: No
Oak CNC controller: No
CNC Control System Serial Number: 7804734C6498-0401191832
DC3IOB: No
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: No
CPU10 or CPU7: No
Location: Clearwater, FL

Re: Cutting aluminum with Nitrogen??

Post by ShawnM »

I posted a pic in my album of my 1/2" aluminum cuts. I think they look great and I have very, very little dross on the back.

Your cuts look great Joey and I would have expected good clean cuts on material that thin. Are you cutting that with "book" numbers from Hypertherm? Did you tweak anything? I can cut thin aluminum (or thin ANYTHING) by the book and get great results. I definitely had to tweak the "profile manager" settings for 1/2" aluminum. The target volts were too low and the speed was too fast for me to get good clean cuts with Nitrogen. I'm at 85 amps also as anything less is an edge start. I even adjusted the pierce height and delay as it take .65 seconds to pierce the 1/2" aluminum and I got a lot of blow back of the molten aluminum and it would sometimes trip the torch out.

I'm cutting some 1/8" diamond plate aluminum tomorrow and will compare my edges with yours.
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