Company Announcement - Easy to use and set up, and low running costs are the hallmarks of Afrox’s extensive range of automated plasma cutting equipment. “We strive to implement turnkey profiling solutions that match the longer-term cutting needs of fabricators," says Afrox Applications Development Manager, Heating & Cutting, Hennie Van Rhyn. “Specifically for cutting stainless steels and aluminium, we offer customers a range of packaged plasma solutions built around combining cutting tables from leading European manufacturer Pierce with Thermal Dynamics' plasma cutting technology.

"We couple Pierce’s flexible range of precision CNC profile cutting tables with Thermal Dynamics' water mist plasma technology, which offers an excellent combination of features for metallic materials such as stainless steel, aluminium, copper and titanium," says Van Rhyn.

The Thermal Dynamics automated plasma cutting range includes the Standard Cutmaster A series, a light duty cycle, entry-level air plasma system that provides an economical and flexible solution. With benefits that include easy set-up and use, superior cut quality up to 120 Amps, the Cutmaster A series offers solutions for light, medium and heavy applications.

Van Rhyn elaborates: “Thermal Dynamics' Auto-Cut XT series is a high duty cycle standard air plasma system ideally suited to heavy plate cutting applications. They deliver a premium performance on both mild steel and non-ferrous metals and incorporate proprietary Maximum Life parts that lower operating costs, and feature water mist secondary (WMS) technology for low cost, high quality cutting on non-ferrous metals, using N2 as plasma gas and ordinary tap water as the secondary.”

The Ultra-Cut XT series is a high precision plasma system with the flexibility to increase cutting power while providing outstanding parts life, the highest kW output for a maximised duty cycle and cut speed, and a lower current draw.

"The beauty of the Ulta-Cut XT range is that the cut quality is high enough to allow parts to go directly from the cutting table to welding, painting or assembly, eliminating the need for costly secondary operations," Van Rhyn comments.

The Afrox range of Pierce profile cutting systems caters for all segments of the profile industry, from the Sabre, providing optical tracing customers a reliable machine supplied with oxy fuel or plasma cutting options, to the Scorpion, RUR, RUM or Maxi systems, which can accommodate the larger, more demanding steel services segment of the market.

The Pierce Sabre 800 optical trace oxy fuel or plasma cutting machine has a tracing width of 800 mm and a cutting width of 1,450 mm, while the Scorpion 2000-3000 machines are light and portable, easy to operate and maintain, even with multi-shift running.

“All our Pierce profile cutting systems are supplied with state-of-the-art Pierce CNC control systems, giving customers the flexibility to select the desired software packages," says Van Rhyn. “By combining the Ultra-Cut XT series with Pierce CNC cutting tables, with customisable widths and lengths, we can offer fabricators HD plasma cutting solutions at a fraction of the price of competing technologies. And by adopting water mist technology, ongoing production costs can be slashed, too."