Experimental Investigation of the Plasma Arc Cutting Process

The plasma cutting process is investigated experimentally in the present paper for assessing the quality of the cut. The quality of the cut has been monitored by measuring the kerf taper angle (conicity), the edge roughness and the size of the heat-affected zone (HAZ). This work aims at evaluating processing parameters, such as the cutting power, scanning speed, cutting height and plasma gas pressure. A statistical analysis of the results has been performed in order for the effect of each parameter on the cutting quality to be determined. The regression analysis has been used for the development of empirical models able to describe the effect of the process parameters on the quality of the cutting.