Still learning with this stuff. Designed a simple shape, donut plate on 1/8", for a spacer. Used Fusion 360 for CAD and CAM. At what point is the material thickness inputted? I do have z-axis, and turned on in FireControl.
My first attempt was to extrude the drawing 0.125". When I ran thru FireControl, the torch head hit hard the work piece. Like it was dropped. The torch would not fire. Cut failure. I thought the material thickness would be dealt with in the CAM process, but can’t find it, or maybe I missed something in the videos.
In the videos from Langmuir for Fusion CAM, there is mentioned of settings for material height with z-axis control, “covered in another video”, but is not covered anywhere, or in any video that I can find. IHC and THC are turned on in the Post.
Fusion rarely makes use of the actual thickness unless you move into the 3D world like sheet metal. Then it uses the thickness to determine the bend radius and other aspects.
If you are just making a body to take to Manufacturing to cut the 2D face, the actual thickness is represented by the cut speed. So that would be in your “tool”. When you set up your tool for 1/8" mild steel (for example), you will determine or look up in a chart, what is the recommended speed/feedrate of the cut for 1/8" plate. You will also want to note the pierce delay, kerf width, cut height and pierce height. As far as lead-in/lead-out most people set that to 60% of the cut feedrate. That is how the cut reacts to the thickness: you have set your plasma cutter to a specific power setting: Amperage. And by setting the pierce delay and cut feedrate, you are essentially making the accommodation for various thicknesses of metal.
The IHS (Initial Height Sensor) job is to probe to find the plate. It then lifts up to find where the torch leaves the surface of the plate. It then sets that spot as Z= 0. It then moves up to what you have set as the pierce height. Torch is turned on and after the Pierce Delay/Pierce Time it moves to Cut height. At that point the torch immediately starts to move for the first contour.
If your torch is actually hitting and then trying to move laterally, there is something else going on.
1 Like
Thanks for quick response.
Yah, something else is going on. Torch does not move after contact. In fact, it does nothing. Not only is the torch not firing, but on second attempt to cut project, FireControl would not even connect with CrossFire. Nor the third, fourth, fifth, nor any other tries. Working with Langmuir on that issue.
1 Like