DEVELOPMENT OF A PLASMA ARC CUTTING ;.SETUP

Abstract

The present work comprises of developing a facility for plasma-arc cutting of different metals including carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminium. A need was felt to have such a cutting set-up in the University welding laboratory under the programme of making the later upto date with equipments for modern welding and cutting techniques. Although only recently indegenous plasmatrons are being made available in the market but it was considered interesting and encourag-ing that a plasma-arc cutting set-up should be developed at the University itself employing the available labo-ratory means. The present work was therefore taken up with this objective in view. Besides giving a brief review of basic principles,. equipments and innovations concerning the plasma-arc cutting process, this report discusses the main features of the plasmatron along with the developmental details of a plasma-arc cutting torch and power systems adopted to match with the available facilities in the welding laboratory. The observations on the trial running of the cutting torch are also recorded. The presently deve-loped set-up has been observed parting off metals having thickness upto 25 mm with faster speeds and better quality of cut.