Hypertherm maxpro 200 0-20 error

[SaidAb]

I'm having this error with hypertherm MAXPRO200, I did the gas pressure test 03 , and the O2 pressure value didn't drop for 5 minutes. I have a dryer and I'm using oxygen tank as a cutting gas and air compressor as shielding gas.
I did test 04 and o2 pressure is 93 psi so it is correct as hypertherm manual says.
The error 0-20 comes after 2-3 piercings. After that I remove the consumables and clean them dry and put them back , they get 2-3 piercings and the error again 0-20.
I changed the cooling filter and the I put a new cooling.
Still the same problem.
When I get the 0-20 error , in 50A it shows 20 when trying to pierce , and it shows 35 with 130 A and it shows 40 with 200A.
I searched in internet and it says it is related to low gas pressure.
Please help me in this especially Jim colt.

[weldguy]

Check the condition of all the orings in your torch. An oring could be leaking air and causing the issue.

Also the fact that it works for 2-3 pierces each time would indicate to me that air flow is being resticted, your using the air faster than you can replenish it through your air supply and filter system. Check your air filters for restriction.

[SaidAb]

Check the condition of all the orings in your torch. An oring could be leaking air and causing the issue.
How to check the orings in this torch ?
When I change the all the consumables ( electrode and nozel and all the other consumables) , the torch also does 2-3 piercings and stops. What orings in the torch I need to check ? How can I know the orings is leaking gas ??
And how to check the orings quality?

Also the fact that it works for 2-3 pierces each time would indicate to me that air flow is being resticted, your using the air faster than you can replenish it through your air supply and filter system. Check your air filters for restriction.

I see the shielding air enters the gas pressure regulator as in the picture and there is a filter down there ( I didn't change it yet ).
For oxygen I see no filter in our system , it comes from the oxygen tank directly to the plasma unit. For oxygen we should put a filter for it ? I thought oxygen tank comes dry and without any moisture and oil.
How to check the oxygen hose for icing or restrictions?? 01-06 test that are implemented in power unit of the plasma aren't enough ( as in the attached picture) ?
The fact that plasma does some piercing after cleaning and drying the consumables can give an idea about the problem ?
I checked the inlet o2 pressure and it is 93 psi , I can attach all the test numbers from the hypertherm power unit panel tomorrow.
Thanks a lot for your advice and answer.
I'm totally new to hypertherm plasma and I'm trying to learn , so I'm not really knowledgeable about the system.

Screenshot_2025-04-08-12-29-38-257_com.google.android.youtube.jpg

Screenshot_2025-04-11-17-34-50-519_com.microsoft.office.word.jpg

IMG_20250415_175142.jpg

[weldguy]

Your oxygen is clean bottled gas and I see no need for any additional filtration.

The air on the other hand comes from a compressor which makes heat and moisture. Your tank will be wet and dirty in side, with a side order of compressor oil likely so that is what I would focus on.

Clean dry compressed air at a constant pressure that does not drop over time due to restrictions is what I would be focused on if I was in your situation.

[SaidAb]

Your oxygen is clean bottled gas and I see no need for any additional filtration.

The air on the other hand comes from a compressor which makes heat and moisture. Your tank will be wet and dirty in side, with a side order of compressor oil likely so that is what I would focus on.

Clean dry compressed air at a constant pressure that does not drop over time due to restrictions is what I would be focused on if I was in your situation.

Thanks for your answer again.
I have a refrigerator dryer installed for the air compressor, how can I know that my dryer is effective or bad ?

[SaidAb]

Your oxygen is clean bottled gas and I see no need for any additional filtration.

The air on the other hand comes from a compressor which makes heat and moisture. Your tank will be wet and dirty in side, with a side order of compressor oil likely so that is what I would focus on.

Clean dry compressed air at a constant pressure that does not drop over time due to restrictions is what I would be focused on if I was in your situation.

Another remark also , when I start having this issue , I was just changing old consumables and cleaning them , I was getting 5-8-20 piercings max , once with a used old consumables I got 200 piercing and the day after 200 piercings, after I changed it , the piercing number goes down again from 400 to 5 or less.
How is this randomly possible?? If air wasn't clean , It wouldn't work for 400 times , I don't know , I just can't give a guess here.

[weldguy]

I mention clean air because it is important and dirty air from your tank may have plugged your air filter, but I worded that incorrectly in my previous post when I said focus on clean dry air. I think that your problem is related to an air restriction as a result of possible dirty air. I would focus on that and determine if any of your inline filters need to be replaced. If you had a pressure gauge at the air inlet on your plasma machine you would be able to see if the inlet pressure was dropping after the first few pierces and know for sure that pressure loss is your problem.

[SaidAb]

I mention clean air because it is important and dirty air from your tank may have plugged your air filter, but I worded that incorrectly in my previous post when I said focus on clean dry air. I think that your problem is related to an air restriction as a result of possible dirty air. I would focus on that and determine if any of your inline filters need to be replaced. If you had a pressure gauge at the air inlet on your plasma machine you would be able to see if the inlet pressure was dropping after the first few pierces and know for sure that pressure loss is your problem.

What this pressure value shows here ? It is a regulator I guess , I noticed it drops little down and comes back up when the plasma is trying to get a piercing.
Note that once my plasma gets a piercing and start cutting, it never stops, even for 20 meter cut , but when the current part ends and a new part need to be cut , the plasma can't do the piercing. The piercing is the problem only here. If air isn't clean and there is restrictions, I would be losing arc in the middle of the cut , no ?? But I'm not losing the arc at all.
I attached a picture of the swirl ring before using it and after 3 piercings, the change in color is normal or it shows a lot of contamination?

IMG_20250408_083631.jpg

IMG_20250414_135801.jpg

IMG_20250414_115426.jpg

[hardworker]

That changed color after 3 pierce? I’d say contamination. Your torch uses coolant correct? Is it full and circulating? Is your torch getting too hot? Are the swirl rings OEM hypertherm or knock offs? I included a pic of some of my heavily used swirl rings an show no discoloration.

image.jpg

[hardworker]

Also have you double checked your using the correct consumables? For the process your running. Check that a see if your running o2 threw consumables ment for air.

[weldguy]

Thanks for chiming in hardworker. Shocking that his swirl rings get soooo dark after 3 pierces! He must have compressor oil or something in his air supply. I have been to shops where the plasma cutter is connected to compressed air supply that has an inline oiler, great for air tools in a mechanic shop, but man it made of mess of their plasma setup!

[SaidAb]

Also have you double checked your using the correct consumables? For the process your running. Check that a see if your running o2 threw consumables ment for air.

I will double check it tomorrow, I'm sure these are for O2.
Thanks for your answer .
Today was crazy ,
One piercing and I need to change the consumables.
I was just cleaning them with air compressor and making them dry , after that I put them back and it does only one or two piercing.
I was thinking maybe something is overheating in the plasma electronic side , but no , after one hour or two of no cutting , the piercing doesn't work . It works only after I clean the consumables and make them dry.
I took pictures of totally new consumables for 200A
They worked for 20 piercings for less then 20 minutes and they stopped.
I took pictures before using them and after.
I have a question please guys:
Now it is almost clear I have a contamination, how to fix this ??
It is enough to change the two filters in the air compressor system ? And the filter that is inside the air pressure regulator in the back of the hypertherm maxpro 200 ?
And tell me please how do you guys use air ? Is there an alternative way of air compressor for my plasma ?
We use oxygen as cutting gas and air as shielding gas , we tried once air as cutting gas also and the cut quality wasn't good.

IMG_20250416_102333.jpg

IMG_20250416_102337.jpg

IMG_20250416_102343.jpg

IMG_20250416_102347.jpg

IMG_20250416_102352.jpg

IMG_20250416_102359.jpg

IMG_20250416_102441.jpg

IMG_20250416_102444.jpg

IMG_20250416_102447.jpg

IMG_20250416_102451.jpg

[hardworker]

Cleaning them with air? Drying them off? Is your torch coolant leaking past the electroid/ water tube? If that is the case that coolant being in there where it shouldn’t be would cause arcing firing issues and possibly burning from the arc…

[SaidAb]

Thanks for chiming in hardworker. Shocking that his swirl rings get soooo dark after 3 pierces! He must have compressor oil or something in his air supply. I have been to shops where the plasma cutter is connected to compressed air supply that has an inline oiler, great for air tools in a mechanic shop, but man it made of mess of their plasma setup!

Thanks again for your advices.
I will take pictures of the air compressor system tomorrow.
We are thinking in work about some possibilities:
1) A defect in electronics parts or some relay or grounding?
2) as the plasma works after cleaning the consumables maybe the pressure of the cooling is high and it is interfering with the O2 and air in the consumables and maybe an o-ring is outdated ?
Tell me please what do you think about these possibilities?

[SaidAb]

Cleaning them with air? Drying them off? Is your torch coolant leaking past the electroid/ water tube? If that is the case that coolant being in there where it shouldn’t be would cause arcing firing issues and possibly burning from the arc…

Yes I use compressed air and some clean paper to dry the consumables when I'm changing them.
I know the compressed air that I'm using it clean these consumables is a bad idea because it is air from the compressor directly and it has moisture and oil maybe , but how to make the consumables dry and clean ? When I'm changing them , the cooling liquid is on top of the nozel and the cap is wet. But this is normal u guess because the cooling liquid is coming out from 3 places. Inside the electrode and on the nozel or around it ( I don't know exactly) and around the shield cap . I figured this out by turning the plasma putting on only the electrode, the cooling was going down from two places , around the electrode and from the side.
If I turn the plasma on without putting on the electrode, the cooling liquid is coming hard from the tube water ( two places there I guess ) and on the side of the torch.
Maybe I will include a picture of this because my explanation isn't clear I guess here.

[weldguy]

Thanks again for your advices.
I will take pictures of the air compressor system tomorrow.
We are thinking in work about some possibilities:
1) A defect in electronics parts or some relay or grounding?
2) as the plasma works after cleaning the consumables maybe the pressure of the cooling is high and it is interfering with the O2 and air in the consumables and maybe an o-ring is outdated ?
Tell me please what do you think about these possibilities?

With regards to the 2 questions above I would say that the issue is not a defect in electronics, relay, or grounding and it looks like your swirl rings come with new orings with each change so I would forget about that for now also.

After your additional information and reading what hardworker has to say about your situation I am with him in thinking you have a coolant leak, your consumables should not be wet and needing to be dried off.

I am not familiar with the cooling system on that machine so hopefully hardworker can chime in and provide some advice on tracking down your coolant leak. Best of luck, I will be following this topic.

[SaidAb]

Thanks again for your advices.
I will take pictures of the air compressor system tomorrow.
We are thinking in work about some possibilities:
1) A defect in electronics parts or some relay or grounding?
2) as the plasma works after cleaning the consumables maybe the pressure of the cooling is high and it is interfering with the O2 and air in the consumables and maybe an o-ring is outdated ?
Tell me please what do you think about these possibilities?

With regards to the 2 questions above I would say that the issue is not a defect in electronics, relay, or grounding and it looks like your swirl rings come with new orings with each change so I would forget about that for now also.

After your additional information and reading what hardworker has to say about your situation I am with him in thinking you have a coolant leak, your consumables should not be wet and needing to be dried off.

I am not familiar with the cooling system on that machine so hopefully hardworker can chime in and provide some advice on tracking down your coolant leak. Best of luck, I will be following this topic.

I attached here a video where I removed the consumables after failing to get a second piercing.
I attached also pictures of the gas pressure test of hypertherm panel
The tests are from 0-1 to 0-6
I sent already the meaning of every test as explained in hypertherm manual for this max pro 200 hypertherm unit.

IMG_20250417_084348.jpg

IMG_20250417_084345.jpg

IMG_20250417_084317.jpg

IMG_20250417_084306.jpg

IMG_20250417_084255.jpg

IMG_20250417_084242.jpg

IMG_20250417_084232.jpg

IMG_20250417_084226.jpg

IMG_20250417_084220.jpg

VID_20250417_083630.mp4

[SaidAb]

Cleaning them with air? Drying them off? Is your torch coolant leaking past the electroid/ water tube? If that is the case that coolant being in there where it shouldn’t be would cause arcing firing issues and possibly burning from the arc…

I sent here the other pictures that I couldn't upload in the last reply.
Also I want to understand what the meaning of that table where it shows current level pilot arc , when the piercing fail , 130 A turns into 35 as in the table and 50A turns to 20 , and 200 A turns to 40 , I know this is not the error code , because the error code is 0-20 every time.

Screenshot_2025-04-08-12-29-38-257_com.google.android.youtube.jpg

Screenshot_2025-04-11-17-34-50-519_com.microsoft.office.word.jpg

IMG_20250417_084455.jpg

IMG_20250417_084538.jpg

IMG_20250417_084538_1.jpg

IMG_20250417_084539.jpg

IMG_20250417_085035.jpg

IMG_20250417_085047.jpg

[SaidAb]

Here I attach a recording video to the hypertherm maxpro 200 pro torch putting only water tube and the electrode ( I didn't put the rest of consumables)
I don't know if what I see in this video is normal or no , I searched in internet about the cooling liquid and how it flow in maxpro 200 but I couldn't understand its path.
Maybe I have a leak , maybe no , help me guys with tips and advices, thanks a lot in advance.

VID_20250417_082703.mp4

[hardworker]

The coolant runs from the water tube to electrode it shouldn’t be going past the electrode. If it’s leaking through into the swirl ring, nozzle anything past the electrode I’d say your torch cracked somewhere. I still have my old ones I’ll take a look at shortly and post some pictures to get a better visual look at failure areas. I upgraded my max pro to the hypro years ago I knew that torch had issues

[SaidAb]

The coolant runs from the water tube to electrode it shouldn’t be going past the electrode. If it’s leaking through into the swirl ring, nozzle anything past the electrode I’d say your torch cracked somewhere. I still have my old ones I’ll take a look at shortly and post some pictures to get a better visual look at failure areas. I upgraded my max pro to the hypro years ago I knew that torch had issues

Thanks for that , I will be waiting for that.
What do you think about the videos I uploaded ?
Where I put on only the electrode and the cooling liquid is running?
I have a feeling that I just need to change every o-ring and to use a lubricant ( we never used a lubricant and we never changed an o-ring in the torch body and in the water tube)

[hardworker]

I can’t get the video to play it’s just black. For sure make sure all orings are good. Is this a new setup or has this been running for a long time in the current environment? Triple check all the consumables are suppose to be together. You should see no sign or trace of coolant till you unscrew the electrode. Pics attached are my old ones. I’m leaning toward a torch failure being your problem

image.jpg

image.jpg

[SaidAb]

I can’t get the video to play it’s just black. For sure make sure all orings are good. Is this a new setup or has this been running for a long time in the current environment? Triple check all the consumables are suppose to be together. You should see no sign or trace of coolant till you unscrew the electrode. Pics attached are my old ones. I’m leaning toward a torch failure being your problem

Let's say it is a torch fail , is it possible to fix the torch or change only some elements on it , or it is necessary to get a new torch ?
Another question, what are the causes from your experience that makes the torch fail with time ? Or what causes that can shorten the life of the torch ?
How many years did you use the torch and how frequently did u use it daily ?
Thanks for your tips.

[SaidAb]

I can’t get the video to play it’s just black. For sure make sure all orings are good. Is this a new setup or has this been running for a long time in the current environment? Triple check all the consumables are suppose to be together. You should see no sign or trace of coolant till you unscrew the electrode. Pics attached are my old ones. I’m leaning toward a torch failure being your problem

I took a screenshot from the video that u couldn't download, here I put in only the electrode without the nozzle and the shield cap, and I turned on the hypertherm unit to see where the cooling liquid path.
Maybe every hypertherm type has a specific design of the water tube and the cooling liquid path , mine is maxpro 200 and I don't know if this is normal or no

IMG_20250418_151214.jpg

[hardworker]

I just tested mine and that is normal as long as all the o rings are doing their job. I would replace them just to ensure. Does it drip coolant at all? I would remove the torch and inspect make sure the insulator is not cracked. They are known to fail. Old age, over tightening consumables, torch collisions. I bought my table from a manufacturing company the table was in use daily. They got a few years out of them. But they did need to be upgraded attached is the recommended replacement interval for my machine. Yours is probably the same

image.jpg