The plasma cutter is one of the most fine-tuned, broadly used, efficient, and versatile tools for slicing even heavy and thick materials quite easily.
What is Plasma Cutting?
Plasma cutting is a process used to cut steel, stainless steel, and aluminum using a plasma torch. Put simply, gas is blown at a high speed from a nozzle while an electrical arc melts the metal and compressed air to blow away the molten metal.
This leaves a cleaner cut than oxygen-acetylene torch cutting. Tampa Steel & Supply provides this service up to ½” thickness. Contact us today if we can help you with this service.
Here’s a list of the seven top reasons to use plasma cutting on your metal materials:
7 Benefits of Plasma Cutting
1. More Versatility
Plasma cutting can be performed on diverse types of metal. It uses an electric arc to cut any conductive metal like steel, iron, copper, brass, aluminum, stainless steel, and other durable materials.
Plasma can also cut different materials stacked on top of one another with the fastest cutting speed. Techniques like Oxyfuel can’t duplicate this.
2. Ease of Use
These plasma cutters are portable and you can easily move this wherever the job demands. Some brands are so portable that just one person can easily handle this.
3. Fast Cuts
If you compare the cutting speed of a plasma cutter with any cutting tools, you’ll find a plasma cutter is the winner since it’s a time saver and a lot easier than other cutting equipment.
A plasma cutter gets the jobs done in one-fourth the time of any other cutting tools. This tool doesn’t need to be preheated before cutting. Thus, it saves the cutting time.
4. Precision Cut Quality
It takes an experienced operator with a steady hand to really make a clean cut. Precision or accurate cutting is one of the major advantages of a plasma cutter, especially when it comes to cutting different shapes or angles with sheet metal.
5. Lower Price
Plasma can cut things faster and with less waste, plus there is very little loss due to on the job injuries. This means the price comes down for the end user so it’s a more cost-effective process than other cutting methods.
6. Piercing Speed
This is where plasma really shines in comparison to Oxyfuel. Many cutting applications require inside piercing. When piercing 15 mm metal with Oxyfuel it must first be heated up to about 1000C and this takes upwards of 30 seconds.
Since plasma doesn’t need this step it can do the same piercing in less than two seconds. Less time equals less money charged to the end user.
7. Safety
Because this cutting process uses gas that is NOT highly flammable, it’s a safer method than other processes.
Visit Tampa Steel and Supply for Quality Steel and Metal Supply
Are you in need of steel supplies and processing? Look no further than the professionals at Tampa Steel and Supply.
We stock an extensive list of steel products for whatever project you need to tackle. We’re proud to have served our customers for nearly four decades and are ready to assist you with your steel needs.