HOW DOES PLASMA CUTTING WORK?

To have a balanced understanding of how plasma cutting works, you need to know what plasma itself means. To make it simple, plasma is the fourth state of matter. Of course, it’s generally believed that there are only three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. But, there’s one state matter missing – plasma.

All the states of matter changes when energy is introduced. Let’s take heat energy, for instance. When a solid (ice) water is facing a certain amount of heat, it will transform into its liquid state, and if the heat is intensified, it will transform from its liquid state to gas (stream). That’s not all; if the heat is further strengthened, the gases become ionized and electrically conductive; hence, it transforms into plasma.

Now, a plasma cutter uses this electrically conductive gas to transfer energy from a power supply to a conductive material bringing out a cleaner, faster cutting process.

For a plasma cutter to operate, an electric arc needs to be sent through a gas passing through a contracted opening (Nozzle). The gas can be oxygen, argon, nitrogen, etc. This will increase the gas temperature to the point where it will turn to the fourth state of matter. of course, everyone knows about the first three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas, but, only a few apart from the scientists are familiar the fourth - Plasma. The plasma's electrical conductivity causes the arc to transfer to the work as the metal being cut is part of the circuit.

The nozzle through which the gas passes makes the gas squeezed at high speed, and the high-speed gas cuts through the molten metal. The gas is also guided around all the boundaries of the cutting area to guard the cut.

There are newly evolving several methods with plasma cutting, which include: touching the torch tip to the work to create a spark and using a high-frequency starting circuit. However, these methods work with Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) cutting.

CNC (computer numerically controlled) plasma cutters fully automate the shape production process. Early CNC machines used a tape with small holes punched to provide instructions to a primitive (by today's standards) computer.

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HOW DOES PLASMA CUTTING WORK?

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