Defining Shielded and Unshielded consumables

[Metal Troll]

I have been purchasing my consumables for sometime and I have just been buying the consumables that were purchased by the manager before me but as I was reading the manuel for my Hypertherm Powermax 1000 (which I do on occasion in case I missed somethng) I have noticed that there are "Shielded" and "Unshielded" consumables. We use a air compresser on are plasma cutter but I am wondering what that would be considered as Shielded or Unshielded? We mainly cut light gauge material (28ga - 20ga galvanized) and every once in awhile some thicker materials. As of right now I purchase the 40A & 60A shielded consumables because thats what the guy before me purchased but as I have gone over things that he did in the past 90% of the things that he did were wrong and now I am second guessing myself. I have tried to find where it defines this in the manuel but just cant seem to find where it tells you the difference. So my question is am I getting the right consumables and if not which ones are correct?

Thanks for the help everyone.

Nick

[jimcolt]

Sheilded consumables are the best consumables to use in your Hypertherm system for 99.9% of the applications. They provide faster cut speeds, better cut quality,and dramatically longer life. The technology for shielded plasma cutting was invented in the mid 1980's to allow for drag cutting with a hand torch....there are different shields for mechanized cutting and hand cutting.

The non shielded consumables are typically used in applications where their are clearance issues....as they are a bit more pointed to get into tight spots.

You should try the FineCut consumables from Hypertherm on your thin gauge materials...superior cut quality!

Jim Colt

[Metal Troll]

Thanks Jim for answering me so fast. It takes a load of my mind knowing that I was getting the right consumables. We tend to use the finecut for are artistic metal when we cut but 9 out of 10 times we are cutting HVAC fittings and the standard consumables work pretty good for that application where critical tolerance are not needed.

Thank you once again for all your information. You have helped us here with are plasma tables more times than I can count as far as I am concerned Hypertherm is the only plasma cutters out there.

Nick