North America's largest metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing event heads to Orange County Convention Center in October 2024. FABTECH provides a convenient "one stop shop" venue where you can meet with world-class suppliers, see the latest industry products and developments, and find the tools to improve productivity, increase profits and discover new solutions to all of your metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing needs.
North America's Largest Metal Forming, Fabricating, Welding and Finishing Event
By Steve Zlotnicki, Global Product Manager, ESAB Cutting Systems
Bevel cutting with plasma has become increasingly common over the last few decades. In the 1990s, only a handful of suppliers had the engineering power and process knowledge required to deliver such a complex system, and prices usually started in the neighborhood of $350K to $500K for a complete machine installation. In today’s market, you can find plasma beveling solutions for less than half of that. The barriers to entry have come down, allowing a plethora of choices when it comes to plasma beveling.
Most critically, the newest beveling technology creates an extremely simple mechanical design, eliminating almost all of the weight and complexity of older bevel head designs.
ESAB’s DMX Automated Plasma Beveller, which will be demonstrated live at FABTECH booth B17074, is similar to many other new generation plasma bevel heads. It uses two rotary axes to provide torch motion for beveling in any direction. However, by incorporating the latest in direct drive technology, the Direct Multi aXis system (DMX) eliminates the need for gearboxes, belts, pulleys, and limit switches. The result is a very compact bevel head with radically reduced complexity, resulting in higher reliability.
The DMX system provides all the benefits of a compound motion system but does it with fewer parts and extremely accurate torch positioning. Motor motion is coupled directly to the torch and is extremely accurate. The motion system’s internal absolute encoder provides resolution better than 1/1000 of a degree in each axis, resulting in axis accuracy of +/-0.004 degrees.
The DMX Beveller cuts the full range of weld preparations, including V, Y, X, and K bevels, with cut angles up to 45° on materials up to 50 mm (view DMX video). The DMX Beveller is complemented by the release of ESAB’s new SmartBevel™ Technology, for easier programming and accurate bevel cutting with minimal operator intervention. Unlike competitive systems, SmartBevel integrates all bevel compensations into the CNC, so bevel programming is simplified, and any fine tuning of the cut is done quickly and easily at the machine.
Motion Compliance
Another important benefit of DMX technology is Motion Compliance, which allows the torch to easily absorb a crash without damage, and automatically resets the torch without manual intervention. “Motion Compliance” is the ability to back-drive the motors, permitting a pre-determined amount of motion in each axis before position error triggers a torch collision. Because of this, DMX does not require a breakaway, spring-loaded, or robotic collision sensor.
When the DMX system senses a torch collision, it disables the motors, allowing them to go limp, which prevents damage. After the collision is cleared and the system reset, absolute position encoders enable the motors return to their exact position. The torch automatically resets in a matter of seconds, and it does so without manual intervention. As a result, DMX Technology improves safety and productivity while reducing complexity and cost.
For more information, visit ESAB at FABTECH in booth B17074, visit esab-cutting.com/dmx.
FABTECH 2024
About the Expo
North America's largest metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing event heads to Orange County Convention Center in October 2024. FABTECH provides a convenient "one stop shop" venue where you can meet with world-class suppliers, see the latest industry products and developments, and find the tools to improve productivity, increase profits and discover new solutions to all of your metal forming, fabricating, welding and finishing needs.
