Plasma cutting torches

Plasma

— cutting with a plasma stream — a highly ionized gas heated to high temperatures. The heating source for such cutting is an electric arc ignited between the electrodes of the nozzle or between the nozzle and the material being cut. Gas is supplied to the nozzle under pressure, which, under the influence of the arc, is transformed into plasma heated to a temperature of several thousand degrees and moving at a speed of up to 1500 m/s; The plasma flow simultaneously melts the material being processed and blows the melt out of the cut cavity. This technology provides a number of advantages over gas and arc cutting: it allows cutting metal up to a couple of tens of centimeters thick, provides high speed and at the same time accuracy (the cut is small and clean, and the likelihood of thermal deformation is minimized), and is also suitable for any alloys, including the most refractory. In addition, plasma cutting is safer than oxyfuel cutting because it does not require the use of flammable gas cylinders. The main disadvantage of cutters of this type is the high cost.