Method for monitoring a flame cutting process
AssigneesIHT Automation GmbH & Co. KG, The Penn State Research Foundation
InventorsGiuseppe Romanelli, Marcel Biskaborn, Christopher Reed Martin
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Abstract
A method for monitoring a flame cutting process includes a preheating phase, a piercing phase following the preheating phase and a cutting phase following the piercing phase, wherein a cutting torch applies a flame generated by combustion of a gas mixture to an electrically conductive workpiece and wherein an electric current flowing between an electrically conductive part of the cutting torch and the workpiece is measured by a current measuring device during a measuring period. An ignition point at which piercing of a hole through the workpiece using the flame starts due to oxidation of the workpiece is detected by a change in the measured current.
Claims16
A method for monitoring a flame cutting process, which comprises a preheating phase, a piercing phase following the preheating phase and a cutting phase following the piercing phase,
- wherein a cutting torch applies a flame generated by combustion of a gas mixture to an electrically conductive workpiece,
- wherein an electric current flowing between an electrically conductive part of the cutting torch and the workpiece is measured by means of a current measuring device during a measuring period,
- wherein an ignition point at which piercing of a hole through the workpiece by means of the flame starts due to oxidation of the workpiece is detected by a change in the measured current,
- wherein a constant voltage is applied by means of a voltage source between the electrically conductive part of the cutting torch and the workpiece at least during the measuring period,
- wherein the voltage is at most as large as a first predetermined voltage, and
- wherein the ignition point is detected by a drop in the measured current.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.