Pierce delay issues ! Little unsure what to do

Hi all,

I am currently having a few issues with my pierce delay on straight lines. No lead in or lead out, kerf width set to 0. Using a hypertherm 45XP with standard consumables with sheetcam and fire control. Currently not using my THC due to a faulty unit, which Langmuir are replacing !!

Sorry for using metric units but I am from Australia. Steel is Hot rolled 3mm sheet (11G I think), starting point was at hypertherm’s recommended cutting specs then pushed the pierce delay out to 1 second.

The first pierce no matter how low I set the delay always blows out. The top line on each plate in pic 1 is 0.3 and the last is 1.0s. Anyone have any suggestion on what could be going on ? Is it a voltage issue ?

Second photo show the same “Blow out” on the first pierce of the program. 3rd shows the 2nd pierce which was actually set longer then the first.

I think subsequent pierces are always shorter than the first because of post airflow. I think.

I have my pierce delay at .7 with the same machine and material settings. I just barely saw a larger pierce point in one of my cuts and then I realized it had been a while since the first pierce in a program of mine was without a lead in.

Can you confirm what your settings are for each line in the first pic? The variation doesn’t seem right with your description, maybe I’m interpreting it wrong though.

Cut settings are the same for ever line which are the recommended hypertherm settings, besides the pierce delay. The first pierce of any of my cuts always seems like it is twice as long as the following ones regardless of what I set it too. How is it possible to use a lead in with a straight line cut ?? I am very new to all this. I am having good results with my faulty THC off.

I guess what I am trying to achieve is a straight cut line without a massive pierce blow out… I am very open to any suggestion to help.

Thank you

Do you have your kerf width set to zero or your pierce clearance set to zero?

You’re going to want your kerf size set to whatever your kerf is and your pierce clearance set to zero.

When I cut break lines in 11g I set sideways compensation to center, pierce clearance at 0 and a .3 pierce delay at 45 amps.

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The first pierce will always be a tad longer. Either make your first cut something with a lead in or trigger the airflow somehow prior to running your program.

If the top line on each plate is .03 and the bottom line is 1 on each plate, then I don’t understand the variation in the pierces. How was the test program run? Did you cut all three plates and lines in one program or did you run each plate separately?

Also, no THC right now, but does the IHS work?

Careful recommending pierce settings, he has a Hypertherm 45xp and we have longer pierce delays than others.

I use the same 45xp that’s why I said what I use when cutting break lines in 11g at 45amps.

I find the way I do it there is no visible pierce point .3 sec delay is long enough to get a arc fired and it pierces instantly through that thin of material.

Should mention though this isn’t with fire control its with mach3 on the cross fire and command and cut on my big table so fire control could need something different by reading through this forum fire control has a lot of weird quirks.

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Ah yes. The relay is different for the firecontrol compatible brains.

Check that your motor couplers are correctly torqued down. I had an issue doing a test cuts that looked similar to the top plate in the first picture. One of the couplers was loose. Tighten it up and fixed the problem.

Yes kerf width was set to zero as recommended in another post of this forum. I am unsure how to set pierce clearance tho ? Is that the same as plunge rate? I am using sheetcam, is that possible ?

The test cuts where done one plat at a time. Each line is a separate layer with its own tool settings (Kerf width at zero and pierce delay changed)

Sorry the second plat was at 0.6 , 0.7, 0.8 , 0.9 , 1.0 delay

I am going to do test cuts again and document the results.

Thank you. I will do a once over everything!

Now that you clarify that your test samples make perfect sense. Your initial pierce at .06 is too long for the first pierce of a program without post flow, and with the post flow on hitting the second pierce, is just ever so slightly too long.

To get a close to perfect as possible, you would want your first pierce slightly shorter to account for this, then subsequent ones slightly longer. Or just have your first cut of a program have a lead in. I do three layers for my programs that have in, out, and no offset cuts.

Thanks mate, the first pierce of the top plate is actually 0.3s then it goes to 0.4 on second cut where you can see the torch has travelled already. i will start playing around with it a little more once my new VIM box arrives !

I’m talking about your second plate. You will likely see slightly different results when your THC is working. Unless your IHS is working normally, then nothing will change. But the second test plate settings are very close to what I use.

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What is the correct torque?