Building construction sites utilize a lot of sheet metals and thick metal items. These items are hard to cut, remold, and reshape, making them helpful in building structures that can withhold tensile and compressive forces. For cutting the construction material, one needs heavy-duty metal cutting machinery. A plasma cutter is one such machine that can easily cut through sheet metal, thick rolled metal pipes, and girdles.
Plasma cutters can cut through metals like aluminum, titanium, brass, stainless steel, and copper with very little resistance. High-quality precision cuts at high speed can only be achieved with the help of plasma cutters.
How Are Plasma Cutters Useful at Construction Sites?
Plasma cutters are handy on a construction site. Metal fabrication is possible on-site with the help of plasma cutters.
There are two types of plasma cutters, manual and mechanized.
- Manual plasma cutters are handheld and used to cut light metal objects and are generally used for smaller jobs like metal trimming and sheet metal cutting.
- A mechanized plasma cutter is usually used in combination with a cutting table. This cutter is a stationary type requiring a power supply. It is used for more extensive and detailed jobs.
How Does Plasma Cutter Work?
A plasma cutter operates by sending an electric arc through an inert gas or gases like nitrogen or oxygen. The gas passes through a restricted opening. The compressed ignited gas creates extreme heat turning into plasma that can cut through almost any metal. The cuts made with a plasma cutter are clean, accurate, and efficient.
Usually, this method is relatively safe compared to a saw and oxy-fuel torch and is used by many metal workers at construction sites. Plasma cutters do not work on highly flammable gas and open flames. The fewer mishaps at a workplace, the safer the work environment is for everybody.
Plasma cutters have helped improve measurement precision in building construction. As technology improved, these machines’ capabilities and design have too. Plasma cutters have increased efficiency in building construction, leading to a rise in safety features and strengthening materials.
Precision cuts help achieve exact measurement, which, in turn, leads to less waste and cost-efficiency. Most construction managers prefer using plasma cutters to avoid damage to the materials and increase the overall time and scope of the project completion.
Small-scale plasma cutters have been used widely in the construction industry. Plasma cutters can cut through metal products faster than oxy-fuel torches. This time saving leads to higher productivity at construction sites. Therefore, plasma cutters can help save costs in a business.
Advantages of Plasma Cutters:
- Plasma cutters can be made highly portable, depending on the type of variant and usage required.
- The handheld devices can be used directly at construction worksites, saving people time, energy, and money in the transportation of heavy machinery and cutting costs.
- It is easy to learn how to operate a plasma cutter.
- Plasma torches can be used to precisely cut curves, shapes, and multiple intersections.
- Plasma cutter precision can either be achieved manually or with computer-aided controls.
- The time taken by plasma is one-fourth of the time required by similar techniques to cut clean through a piece of metal. The risk of metal abrasion, cuts made in error, and distortion are easily avoided because of the fast process time.
- Plasma cutting is versatile and can be used on various metals like copper, titanium, iron, steel, and several alloys.
- It is cost and energy-efficient, with less wastage capacity. On the other hand, oxygen cutting is not as energy-efficient and takes longer.
Plasma cutters are a one-time investment. Since contractors need to save money in the overall building project, purchasing plasma cutters help in saving general project expenses and reducing the time taken for completion. Plasma cutters are easy to maintain, hardly require the replacement of spare parts, and can last longer than other equipment at construction sites.
Since inert gases are used in plasma cutters, the safety features are also higher than in other oxy-fuel cutters. Oxy-fuel cutters are at a significantly higher risk of explosions, accidents, and fire hazards than plasma cutters.
Conclusion
Overall, it is evident that plasma cutters are a fabulous addition to construction and building sites. They help save costs, increase the efficiency of cutting and measurements, and increase the safety of construction workers. Since these cutters are incredibly versatile and have multiple uses with a variety of metals, the use of plasma cutters should be encouraged.
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