Titanium Cutting on Plasma tonight (2019-09-10)

Metal Shop
#1

We have a member that has reached out to the committee, and with supervision we’re going to experiment with cutting Titanium on our plasma.

This will involve cleaning the drawer of the unit first to mitigate fire risk, setting the system up for Nitrogen versus Air as a gas, and determining cut speed for the titanium sheets used.

Titanium requires committee approval before cutting, and this is the first time on this machine. If you’re considering ever using titanium it would be a good learning experience for all. Tonight we’re just doing test cuts and figuring out settings.

I’m going to get there around 7 to look at what’s on hand/cleaning etc, however we likely will need to make a hardware store run for a hose fitting for the nitrogen setup so might not cut until around 8 or so if we do.

For those interested I’ll go over caveats to cutting titanium with plasma, our shop precautions for the purpose, etc.

Cheers,
-Jim

16 Likes
#2

Dang, I’m teaching a class at this time. Perhaps a few pictures or video’s could be taken and posted?

#3

Planning on it

2 Likes
#4

YES! Pix and notes! Not that I ever plan on doing anything with Titanium, but this would be a good thing to writeup for some PR publication.

3 Likes
#5

PR is going to be covering it.

5 Likes
#6

The titanium cutting went fairly well. We cut both some 18ga and 12ga sheets.

Cuts were done at 45 Amps, with the Fine Cut settings for mild steel with feed speed increased by 20%, 30%, and 40%. 30% gave us the best results overall, especially on 12ga. We did not try 40% on the 12ga due to lack of gas.

In general Ti will cut like mild steel on plasma, however it needs to move faster to prevent blobs from forming. Additionally, it needs to use Nitrogen as the cut gas (or a more exotic mix like Argon/Hydrogen blend) to prevent rapid oxidation whilst providing adequate heat output.

To set this up, a Nitrogen bottle and regulator were provided and a hose made to pump it through the air inlet on the Hypertherm. Unlike welding, plasma torches use the gas for cutting rather than shielding. This means that a lot of gas is used. We went through most of the pony bottle shown below.

IMG_20190910_204323
IMG_20190910_204323.jpg3024×4032 3.6 MB

IMG_20190910_222549
IMG_20190910_222549.jpg2138×2851 2.32 MB

There was discolouration as expected with the heat, but nothing a pass through the vapor hone couldn’t fix:

IMG_20190910_223358
IMG_20190910_223358.jpg3024×4032 3.62 MB

One small 9*9 inch plate, with four screw holes, used a lot of gas from this pony bottle (before and after)

IMG_20190910_213614
IMG_20190910_213614.jpg3024×4032 3.43 MB

IMG_20190910_214822
IMG_20190910_214822.jpg3024×4032 3.41 MB

Part of the plate that was being cut (Brad can probably provide a better photo):

IMG_20190910_215130
IMG_20190910_215130.jpg3024×4032 2.92 MB

3 Likes
#7

A fresh bottle should have about 2500 psi or so.
Good to see it cut ok.

1 Like
#8

Amazing, no fire, nice work!

I want to try Inconel and Invar.

#9

Bottle started off at 2500. That photo was just before the last cut, after we used a bit of gas.

#10

Inconel needs nitrogen or argon hydrogen blend, and lots of it.

1 Like
#11

Did you try air?? I would love to see what happens when it “reacts”.

#12

Gotcha…I thought you meant that is where is started off at.

#13

Tempting to start a “rapid oxidation” event but titanium is a pretty penny to just burn up like that :stuck_out_tongue:

#14

Kind of expensive to make DMS key chains too.:rofl:

#15

hey, needed some test cuts from a known file :man_shrugging:

#16

@hon1nbo what did you use for current and feed speeds?

#17

This was posted earlier.

2 Likes
#18

Cool. Thanks. It looked like there was some slag…Did it remove easily?

What are you building?

#19

heh, almost forgot to tag the member: @magbar2_2

#20

For the folks that read this and wonder why. Titanium is flammable. Not that we would be producing this much scrap, it’s just an interesting video to illustrate the point. I didn’t know it was flammable until recently. :flushed:

2 Likes