New model with multiple gas options helps bridge the technology gap and increase flexibility
Above: The K-Desk app features an intuitive menu-guided user interface, enables all parameters and settings to be seen at a glance, and off ers selection and individual adjustment of cutting parameters.
October, 2023- New model with multiple gas options helps bridge the technology gap and increase flexibility
High-definition plasma is one of the leading technologies used when cutting carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminum, but not every job requires the higher cost process of high-definition plasma. That is why Kjellberg Cutting Inc. is introducing its newest plasma system, the K 200, explains Walt Lewis, senior technical service manager for the Lewisville, Texas-based company.
“High-definition plasma requires a multigas approach to cutting. With carbon steel, that means you are required to use both oxygen and air as input gases, but our K 200 will offer exceptional cut quality and speed without the need of multi-gas process,” Lewis explains.
To help fill a gap between an air plasma and a high-definition plasma cutting system, Kjellberg introduced the K 200 multiple-gas plasma at the Fabtech 2023 trade show. Beta testing operations will begin in November at at least one European OEM, with machine orders being accepted starting in January and initial deliveries expected during the second quarter of 2024.
With multiple-gas capability, the K 200 can cut mild steel with oxygen or air and stainless steel and aluminum with nitrogen or air, he says. “The K 200 system doesn’t quite have the quality of high definition, but it has much more capability than air-only plasmas. You have less dross and a better cut quality when you’re cutting with multi-gas plasma.”
The swirl gas options are air and nitrogen, while oxygen is available only as a plasma gas, which provides a clean cut on mild steel, according to Lewis. Oxygen use is mandatory as a plasma gas in the company’s high-definition systems but an option on Kjellberg’s K 200. “The K 200 gives you the flexibility of just using air to cut with good quality and eliminating the use of a high-dollar gas for something you don’t need high-definition quality on.”
The K 200 plasma cutting system can cleanly cut contours
KEEP IT SIMPLE
Lewis describes the K 200 model as “an extremely simple piece of equipment” with minimal maintenance requirements. “All you need is an airline and power, and this machine is ready to run.
Maintenance comes down to an annual change of coolant and a few low-cost contacts getting replaced.”
Lewis believes the main customers for the K 200 are small to medium CNC plasma machine users, “the mid-level table manufacturers that are not ready to go into high definition but are still looking for a 200-amp system,” Lewis says. Potential customers want “something capable of piercing 1-in.- thick material which, in my experience, is going to be most of them.”
Kjellberg also plans to sell the K 200 to system integrators for retrofitting plasma machines, he adds. “So, you have a customer that has a smaller amperage air plasma and they’re ready to upgrade to a multi-gas, oxygen-based system, they can retrofit a machine very simply.”
Lewis explains that an intelligent CNC is not required to operate the plasma because the process can be controlled remotely to monitor and provide process control of the system via the K 200 mobile smartphone app, which is called K-Desk. “We allow for either the serial communication capability or the application.”
The K 200 cuts with the machine torch that Kjellberg calls the K-Torch, as well as with the handheld K-Torch M.
TAKE A PEEK
Kjellberg reports that the app features an intuitive menu-guided user interface; enables all parameters and settings to be seen at a glance; and offers selection and individual adjustment of cutting parameters.
Lewis adds that an end user indicates the technology, such as oxygen cutting, workpiece material, material thickness, cutting speed, cutting height, ignition height, and pierce height and time, and the plasma system will set itself up appropriately. The app also indicates if there are any machine errors.
“[K-Desk] is the first app-store app in the industry that allows an application to run the plasma,” he says, noting that the app is available from the Apple and Google Play stores.
However, Lewis explains what the system is capable of if the CNC has RS-485 serial communication capability. “If the customer has a CNC that has serial communication capability, the CNC can completely control this plasma.” The system can pierce metal from 0.036- in. thick (roughly 18 gauge) to 1¼-in. thick, he notes, and has a maximum cutting capacity of 2¼-in. thick.
The power source for the K 200 plasma cutting system has an integrated automatic gas control and a torch with direct connection.
MARKING CAPABILITY
The K 200 can also be used for gouging and marking. Although marking is commonly performed on high-definition systems, Lewis says that capability is unique to the company’s K 200 for systems in this range. Typical marking applications, which are performed with air or nitrogen, include creating bend lines, weld locations and part numbers. While marking is only available with the machine torch, the machine is also available with a handheld torch. Kjellberg calls its handheld torch for manual cutting or gouging K-Torch M. The handheld torch opens the use of this system to those who need manual process control such as auto body and detail shops, or recycling centers where a lot of scrap is processed by hand.
The machine’s power source has an integrated automatic gas control and a torch with a direct connection to it. Having a direct connection is an easier method that reduces the number of components that might require maintenance, Lewis notes.
He says it took the German manufacturer Kjellberg Finsterwalde Plasma und Maschinen GmbH around two years to design and develop the K 200. “Two years is really what it takes to do a good job. Kjellberg tries not to put a product in the field that hasn’t been tested and debugged. We don’t want our customers to work out the bugs. We do that before we go to market.”
The company generated initial interest by dropping hints about developing a new multiple-- gas plasma cutting system, Lewis says. “There are several of our OEM customers that have been expecting this machine for over a year and now we are ready to deliver the next generation of plasma.”
Kjellberg Cutting Inc., 469/770-9799, http://kjellbergcutting.com/
