Farley Plasma Bed Rebuild
Recently we had to rebuild one of our plasma beds and have captured the highlights in this Farley plasma bed rebuild post. The plasma bed consists of a frame with slats sitting vertically across the frame. The slats hold the steel plate on the bed while the torch profile cuts the material. After a period of time slag builds up and the steel plate no longer sits flat on the bed, and that is when you either need to clean the bed or replace it. If this is not done the cut quality decreases dramatically. After a number of cleans with a Jack Hammer the bed needs replacing as the slats become so damaged the plate no longer sits flat.
There are multiple beds on most Plasma Machines and as Diecut’s is a 3 x 9m cutting bed there are 5 beds, Having multiple beds makes it easier to clean or replace a bed while the Plasma is in operation. Therefore, no delay in getting work out, while you clean the bed! We chose to replace all beds at this time as it was more time consuming cleaning than it was to fully replace the bed.
We used off the shelf products and did everything in house. We were able to cut everything in house and only bought in mesh and angle iron, helping keep the costs low. The angle iron was cut to the correct dimension and welded together into a large rectangle. Flat plate was cut in sections to create support along the base and an area for the slat supports to be welded. Once the Slat supports were cut bent into shape and welded in place. It took several sheets to cut all the slats and once they were done we put them into the bed.
Photo 1 – Mesh Used
Photo 2 – Area Mesh Used
Photo 3 – Angle Iron used for Frame
Photo 4 – Slat supports in place
We cut lifting lugs for lifting the bed in and out of place. We moved these from the original position as they often interfered with jobs. We moved them to the outside of the bed, were cutting is rarely done therefore they are less exposed to being cut by the plasma head. We also made them out of thicker material, so that when we lifted the bed it was stronger and better able to fit with lifting equipment.
Once it was all together we were able to lift one bed out at a time and scrape the slag out of the bottom and put the new beds in place. We also cut a few extra slats so that the cutter can replace the extremely damaged ones very easily.
Photo 5 – awaiting slats
Photo 6 – Completed Bed