Huge Bevel When Cutting - Hypertherm Blaming Torch Squareness

CrossFire ® Troubleshooting
1

Hello everyone.

I’ve been battling my Crossfire for about six weeks now. When I cut I am left with a huge bevel on one side of my parts while the other sides are perfectly 90 degrees. I am running a Hypertherm Powermax 45xp.

I have cut thousands of these parts (long term customer) over the past six months without issue until six weeks ago. Since then I have spent several hundred dollars on consumables (I’ve changed caps/ swirl rings/ nozzles/ electrodes multiple times), spent several hundred dollars on wasted material trying to pinpoint this problem. I’ve changed the table slats out, tried cutting with my laptop power cord disconnected, lubed the ball screws, tried multiple handheld torches and even upgraded to a machine torch (at the urging of several Hypertherm reps) and I am still left with the same problem.

What I predominantly cut is 11 gauge 304-2B stainless steel. The settings that worked amazing for thousands of parts are:

pierce delay: 1.1s
pierce height: 0.12"
cut height: 0.02"
cut speed: 84 ipm @ 45 amps

I went to Hypertherm with this problem and they are ADIMANT that this problem is not caused by their torch and/ or their machine, that this problem is happening because my torch head isn’t square to the material. I was on the phone with my local rep and he told me to bring an example to FabTech Toronto and he and the other reps from Hypertherm will look at it. The big-wigs from the USA assured me that this issue is happening because my handheld torch isn’t square and that if I upgraded to a machine torch all my problems would go away.

The handheld torch was always square. I always checked it’s squareness. But being desperate for a solution I forked out the cash to import the machine torch parts to Canada from Langmuir, picked up a brand new machine torch…and I’m left with the same problem.

I’m at the point where I don’t know what to do. As far as I can determine my table is good but that’s why I’m here. Could something be wearing out on it that when the torch moves a certain way it throws the torch out of square? Am I overlooking something here?

Please help me, I’m willing to try anything. At this point I am just trying to retain this customer, I have made zero dollars because I’m having to farm out all my orders to another cut shop. I have attached a few pictures so you can get a better idea what I’m working with.

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2

Make sure you have slack in the torch cable. It might tilt when moving in one direction. Also check to make sure no bolts have loosened up on the z axis

1 Like
3

There’s a decent amount of slack on the torch cable. I went over all the fasteners when I cleaned and lubricated the Z-Axis ball screw.

4

You show one part with one side beveled and say the other side is perfectly straight. Your layout shows the parts are nested, with every other part rotated 180 degrees. On those parts, which side is beveled? Is it the same side in relation to the table or the same side in relation to the part’s design?
Also, where do you zero your angle gauge? The top of the workpiece, or the top of the X rail and which way is it oriented when you zero it?

2 Likes
5

Have you gone back through and checked your cut height, air pressure at machine and torch? If any are out of range, you will get beveled cuts…