new powermax 30 torch

[otisa2007]

so today i went to my local weld shop to get some tips and electrodes for my powermax 30 and looking at the new hypertherms sitting on display i noticed a new powermax 30 with what looked like the 45 consumables on it i asked the salesman about it but they couldnt tell me anything other than it had a new style head on it i'm curious if the consumables are the same as the 45 and if so can my current 30 be converted to the new setup. the 45 consumables are alot easier to get around here but theres only one weld shop in town that sells them for the 30 any info on this would be greatly appreciated

[jimcolt]

The original Powermax30 has its own torch, the newest Powermax30XP has a completely different torch design with shielded consumables (like the Powermax45, but not interchangeable), and there also is a new Powermax30 Air with a built in compressor.

- None of the three torches are interchangeable.
-The original Powermax30 does not have adequate load voltage output to get good performance out of the newer XP style torch.
-The Powermax30 Air torch is designed to allow for lower air flows and lower load voltage to conserve cutting power....which it has to share with the onboard compressor.

The best replacement torch for the original Powermax30 is the original style torch. Best performance in terms of cut quality and consumable life.

Jim Colt Hypertherm

[otisa2007]

thanks jimcolt for the information and i will say for a cutter not meant for a machine application i love my powermax 30 i've been cutting with it for nearly 2 years now and since i'm starting to cut more and more thicker metal I've been eyeballing a new 45 or 65 christmas is just around the corner.

[jimcolt]

I know it seems overly complicated to have 3 different torches for 3 30 amp machines. Hypertherm engineering designs every torch and every power supply together in order to optimize system efficiency. Matching the power supply output characteristics to the high temperature physics that occur inside a plasma torch is the key to getting maximum consumable life and best cut quality.

The original Powermax30 was designed to get the most power from a 120 volt , 20 amp circuit with the technology available when it was designed (roughly 7-8 years ago). The replacement Powermax30XP is a result of better power supply engineering in terms of efficiency and cooling resulting in more power output with the same power input. Because of this it allowed our engineers to develop a shielded torch (shielded cutting provides the best consumable life, but requires a higher load voltage).....a major improvement in cutting performance in a 30 amp class plasma. Then, based on customer surveys we were able to use some of the new technology developed for the 30 XP to design a 120/230 volt unit with a built in compressor......and remember the compressor uses a lot of that limited (120 volt) input power, so the torch had to be designed to use 1. less air in terms of pressure and flowrate, 2. Lower load voltage (had to not use the shield technology to do this).

Other manufacturers simply do not go to this level of effort to improve the performance of their systems. On most imports you will see "universal" torches that are used because they are already designed and they are cheap. Performance will suffer, guaranteed. Even many major brand plasma cutters will use the same old torch design often....because it is cheaper from a development point of view to do so. Performance will suffer again!

It would be nice for 1 torch to fit them all.....but that is not an easy task! Jim Colt Hypertherm