Portable Plasma CNC Machine

Project Title

Portable Plasma CNC Machine

Project Area of Specialization Mechanical EngineeringProject Summary

Portable CNC Plasma Cutter Machine provides a low cost solution to upgrade from already existing framework of manually controlled plasma machnies to CNC Plasma cutter. 

The plan is to provide a complete solution to make the manufacturing easier by providing a more controlled cutting of metal sheets to reduce waste of material and time, as is wasted by defective cutting when done manually.

A CNC is able to move in two directions, thus providing a path over whole sheet. Our prototype is 1 m by 1 m in size and will be able to cut sheets/plates of this size or smaller. The input will be in form of CAD drawings. The software will let the computer decipher the instructions and provide a path for torch to move and cut the sheet in desired shape. 

Since, it is CNC controlled, the machine will be able to cut materials in intricate shapes.

A water bed is provided to cool the metal and collect the molten metal, so that further cutting is not interupted by high temperatures or by debris.

The control is done thriugh two electric motors. A software is used that converts CAD input drawings into codes that a controller understands, thus providing cuttings.

Project Objectives

The objective is to provide a well controlled and precise cutting of metal(conduting) plates/sheets. The result will be CNC cutter. The controllers/PC control the torch movement while keeping the bed fixed.

The objectives are

The following are kept in mind while working on project. The following characteristics will be used:

• Easy to adapt to
• Low Cost
• Low weight
• Easy to move around
• Easy to use

Other objectives are to:

• Gain knowledge of CNC controlled machines and their types
• Learn about metal cutting techniques and to know about their deficiencies/challenges
• Learn about basic electric circuits and control systems
• Learn about the G-Codes and M-Codes which are used to operated CNCs
• Learn about materials purchase, and industrial standards of different mechanical componenets.
• Learn about modern machining and manufacturing tehniques (especially about cutting)
• Learn about project management and team management

Project Implementation Method

The project broadly encompaases these stages:

1. A study of market trends and establishing the exact needs of small and medium scale manufacturing units.
2. Understand issues faced by currently employed machines.
3. Preparing CAD models of the machine.
4. Selecting the Plasma cutter and order to import it.
5. Then manufacturing stage starts, which includes implementation of the design.
6. Study of Electrical Control, and designing a suitable circuit along with incorporating control.

The project is implemented in team ehile reporting to faculty advisor.

The team members are individually tasked, and report their wok in team meetings. While helping eachother is there, yet each member is individually responsible for the tasks he receives thus ensuring work is done at a rapid speed.

Furthermore, any issues faced are resolved by consulting the team mates and then faculty advisor, and if still not resolved is consulted by seniors/other faculty members.

The reports are created and noted are made and shared for keeping whole team understand the progress and direction of work.

Benefits of the Project

In medium sized industries, where metal plates and sheets are cut, plasma and gas cutters are used. However, they are used by hands resulting not only in less precise cuts, but also wastage of materials if operator makes a mistake.

It also makes the operator to work in high risk environment posed by very hgh temperature of plamsa and gas temperatures.

We provide a low cost arrangement to such industries to easily upgrade to CNC cutting with our machine. Therefore, with our machine, the users will have following benefits:

• Easily upgrade from their present manual/hand held plasma machines to CNC cutting which uses their already in use Plasma cutter machine.
• Bring more versatile designs to their collection as a CNC  cutter is able to precisely cut intricate shape not possible by human hand.
• Make heir operators more safe by not having to be near to high temperature plasma torch
• Reduce their waste caused by irregular cuts.
• Bring consistancy in their products as a single drawing can be used to produce multiple cuts of the same sizes
• Low cost makes it attractive to upgrade.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The final deliverable is working prototype of CNC Plasma cutting machine, which has low weight and is able to cut metal sheets/plates.

The machine shall be able to:

• Take instructions about shape of cut from the user
• Decipher the instructions/CAD drawings and compute codes to follow the path as desired
• Start and stop plasma as and when required
• Cut the metal sheet according to draing/instructions provided
• Keep the temperature in suitable range.(Done by using water bed)
• Be portable and easily assemleable
• Be in less weight to be easily moved around

The final machine will work without field interference from the high voltage of Plasma Cutting Machine.

Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry ManufacturingOther IndustriesCore Technology OthersOther TechnologiesSustainable Development Goals Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Responsible Consumption and ProductionRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	76200
Plasma Cutter	Equipment	1	40000	40000
Motors	Equipment	2	500	1000
Controller/PC	Equipment	1	11500	11500
CNC Software	Equipment	1	11700	11700
Pipes/L/T Steel for Bed and Gantry With welding Cost	Equipment	1	5000	5000
Overheads/Travelling for Buying Materials from other cities	Miscellaneous	1	7000	7000