history of plasma cutting

History of Plasma Cutting

What is plasma cutting? It is a process that uses a plasma torch to cut through steel and other kinds of metal or materials of various thicknesses. An inert gas (in a few units, compressed air is used instead of a gas) comes out of a nozzle at high speed while an electrical arc forms through the gas to the surface that is to be cut. The arc turns some of the gas into plasma, which is hot enough to melt the metal that is to be cut and is also fast enough to blow the molten metal away from the cut as it is produced.

Plasma cutting is a process that cuts through electrically conductive materials by means of an accelerated jet of hot plasma. Typical materials cut with a plasma torch include steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass and copper, although other conductive metals may be cut as well. Plasma cutting is often used in fabrication shops, automotive repair and restoration, industrial construction, and salvage and scrapping operations. Due to the high speed and precision cuts combined with low cost, plasma cutting sees widespread use from large-scale industrial CNC applications down to small hobbyist shops.

 

Plasma cutting began in the 1960s. It came about as a part of plasma welding and was a very productive way of cutting plate and sheet metal in the 1980s. There were several advantages to plasma cutting. For one thing, no metal chips were produced and cuts were more accurate. Another advantage was that plasma cutting produces a cleaner edge than oxy-fuel cutting. In the beginning of plasma cutting, the cutters were rather large, expensive, and slow. This led to plasma cutting being used in mass production areas

source : https://bakersgas.com/blogs/weld-my-world/history-of-plasma-cutting