• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
• /
• v.17 no.7
• /
• pp.132-140
• /
• 2000

Plasma arc cutting is one of the most widely used processes in metal cutting fields and is a process that produces parted metal plates by cutting them with an arc plasma established between the electrode tip and the plate(workpiece). When the tip-to-workpiece distance varies during cutting, the cut quality, for example the kerf width, is deteriorated by the change of plasma arc. The variations of tip-to-workpiece distance are due to the different factors such as inaccuracies in setting the torch or workpiece, thermal distortions during cutting, and uneven surface of workpiece. The control to keep the tip-to-workpiece distance constant is thus indispensable to improve the flexibility of automatic plasma arc cutting system applications. In this study, an arc sensor which utilizes the electrical signal obtained from the plasma arc itself was developed. The arc sensor has an advantage that no particular sensing device is necessary and real-time sensing of the tip-to-workpiece distance is possible directly under the plasma arc. The relationship between plasma arc voltage and tip-to-workpiece distance was determined through the repeated experimental results. The model was used for developing an automatic tip-to-workpiece distance control system of plasma arc cutting. It could be shown that the proposed system has a successful capability of tip-to-workpiece distance control.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.60-69
• /
• 1990

Plasma arc cutting is a fusion cutting process in which a gas-constricted arc is employed to produce a high-temperature, high-velocity plasma jet on the workpiece. This process provides some advantages such as increased cutting velocity, excellent working accuracy and the ability to cut special materials (widely used stainless steels and Al-alloys, for example), when compared with iconventional oxyfuel gas cutting. From the view point of price and reliability of the power source, plasma arc cutting has also some distinct advantages over laser beam cutting. High-speed machines with NC or CNC systems are needed for the plasma arc or laser beam cutting process, while for oxyfuel gas cutting, low-speed machines with copying templates or optical-shape tracking sensors can be applied. The low price and high flexibility of the microprocessor arc contributing more and more the application of CNC system in the plasma arc cutting process, as in other manufacturing fields. From these points of view, a microprocessor-based plasma arc cutting system was developed by using a reference-pulse system, and its performance was tested. The interpolating routines were programmed in the assembly language for saving the memory volume and improving the compouting speed, which has an intimate relationship with the available cutting velocity.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.54 no.3
• /
• pp.1145-1151
• /
• 2022

A hybrid cutting using both plasma and end mill was developed for safe and efficient dismantling of nuclear facilities. In this cutting method, a moving arc plasma heats up the workpiece before milling. Thermally softened part of the workpiece is then removed quickly and deeply with an end mill. For the cutting experiments, a three-axis numerical control (NC) milling machine was combined with a commercialized arc plasma torch and used to cut 25 mm thick stainless steel plates. Experimental results revealed that pre-heating by arc plasmas can improve the cutting volume per unit time higher than 40% by reducing the cutting load and increasing the cuttable depth when using an end mill without cutting fluids. These advantages of a hybrid cutting process are expected to contribute to quick and safe segmentations of metal structures with radioactively contaminated inner surfaces.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers Conference
• /
• 2003.04a
• /
• pp.149-154
• /
• 2003

The cutting tests of high tensile steel plate(AH36) were carried out using CNC plasma arc cutting machine. Both top and bottom width of kerf and the surface roughness(Ra, Rmax) of cut surface are measured under various cutting conditions such as cutting speed, steel plate thickness, etc. In the CNC plasma arc cutting, the surface roughness decreases as cutting speed increases. The hardness is high up to 4mm depth from the cutting surface. In the cutting speed 1300~2100mm/min, the ratio of proper kerf width(Wt/Wb) is around 2.6. Through the series the series of experiments, the satisfactory cutting conditions of high tensile steel plate were found.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.23-33
• /
• 1987

Plasma arc cutting is a fusion cutting process in which a gas constricted arc is employed to produce high temperature, high velocity jet at the workpiece. Even though the plasma arc cutting has been wid¬ely used in the industry, very little work has been done on the analysis of the process. In this paper, the kerf width was numerically analyzed by soving the temperature distribution in base metal under consideration of the latent heat effect. In modelling the heat flow problem, the heat intensity of the plasma arc was assumed to have a Gaussion distribution in the transverse direction and expone¬ntially decreasing in the thickness direction. The thermal efficiency and the heat input ratio of the top surface were experimentally deterimned for various thickness and cutting conditions, and used in numerical calculation of the kerf width. The experimental results were in eonsiderabely good agreement with the theoretically predicted kerf width.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.52-61
• /
• 1991

In the recent years the computer-numerical controlled cutting process such as a plasma arc cutting and a laser cutting is widely applied to reduce the time and cost expense for generating NC part program of the parts to be cut. In the present study, a CAD system(C-CAD) was developed to generate automatically the NC part programs with CLDAT(Cutter Location Data)for the CNC plasma arc cutting system. The NC part programs are composed of the 2-dimensional drawing of the parts to be cut and the technological data. The shape data of the parts drawn in the Auto-CAD can be also used in the C-CAD, since the data file generated by the C-CAD is compatible with that by the Auto-CAD. In order to check its applicability, the C-CAD and CAM system were applied to cut the parts, and which showed the satisfactory results.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.69-74
• /
• 1991

The Plasma Arc Cutting Method using high density and hight temperature beam is well applicable to the cutting of the nonferrous metal (Al alloy ) and stainless steel which are unable to be cut by the use of the oxy-fuel gas. This study focalizes on the cutting phenomena of the plate of (mm) thickness, since the cutting phenomena of thick plates have been rather thoroughly studied. In this study the cutting groove, adhesive phenomena of dross, surface roughness were measured according to the variation of cutting speed and compared with the case of mild steel plates. The result showed that the kerf width variation of Al alloy was similar to the case of mild steel, while that of the stainless steel differed from the mild steel. In the adhesive phenomena of dross, 6(mm) thick plates of Al alloy showed a difference from those of thick plates, but the stainless steel was similar to thick plates. The surface roughness variation of Al alloy wias minimum at 67 cm/min, while that of stainless steel was at 30cm/min.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.22-27
• /
• 2022

In accordance with the growing trend of decommissioning nuclear facilities, research on the cutting process is actively proceeding worldwide. In general, a thermal cutting process, such as plasma cutting is applied to decommissioning a nuclear reactor pressure vessel (RPV). Plasma cutting has the advantage of removing the radioactive materials and being able to cut thick materials. However, when operating under water, the molten metal remains in the cut plane and re-solidifies. Hence, cutting is not entirely accomplished. For these environmental reasons, it is difficult to cut thick metal. The contact arc metal cutting (CAMC) process can be used to cut thick metal under water. CAMC is a process that cuts metal using a plate-shaped electrode based on a high-current arc plasma heat source. During the cutting process, high-pressure water is sprayed from the electrode to remove the molten metal, known as rinsing. As the CAMC is conducted without using a shielding gas, such as Argon, the electrode is consumed during the process. In this study, CAMC is introduced as a method for dismantling nuclear vessels and the relationship between the metal removal and electrode consumption is investigated according to the cutting conditions.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.30-34
• /
• 2017

The trend of the plasma cutting and laser cutting technology of metal alloys including high strength steel, aluminum alloys for the welding structures has been studied. The high-precision plasma systems offer a denser, higher energy arc that in effect produces a sharper cutting tool and high quality cutting products. The high-quality fiber laser systems with compact design and easy set-up make it ideal for cutting in the pipeline or steel structre manufacturing. This paper covers the scientometric analysis of the high efficient cutting technology which are based on the published research works in the 'plasma and laser', and 'cutting technology' obtained from Web of Science, and deals with the details of the background data of the plasma cutting and laser cutting technology.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.37 no.6
• /
• pp.589-595
• /
• 2013

This paper was to study the effect to Yongrak phenomenon of I groove submerged arc welding depending on the plasma cutting surface characteristics, and how to reduce the causes and characteristics Yongrak phenomenon. Shipbuilding and marine structures is designed to use the thick plates and welded by high current to obtain deep penetration. Yongrak phenomenon has been occurred frequently depending on the quality of cutting surface and it makes degrade of the welding quality and modification of the welding. As a result, it was confirmed that I Groove plasma cutting characteristics get bevel form of 2 to 4 degrees to one side direction from the vertical position with Yongrak phenomenon. This is the main reason of Yongrak phenomenon in butt joint welding and 4 degree reverse bevel on the upper surface of base metal by submerged arc welding brought the effect of significant reduction of Yongrak phenomenon.