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· Why is Dynatorch different from other vendors in this market?
· Can your equipment be used for routing?
· Who developed your software?
· Is it difficult to import my drawings into Dynatorch cutting software?
· Can your system use a hand torch?
· Can your system use a oxy-acetylene torch?
· How can you afford to sell a closed loop Brushless Servo system at stepper motor prices?
· If intelligent motors are so great why don't your competitors use them also?
· Do I need to know G-Coding to use your system?
· Is your torch height controller an extra charge option?
· What's "Plasma Arc Transfer" and why is it important?
· Why did you use those expensive planetary gear heads instead of timing belts?
· What the heck is meant by arc-minutes of backlash?
· Tell me about your technical support and its cost.
· Are you willing to provide references with a wide spectrum of your customers?
· You are the new guys on the block. How do I know you will be around next week?
The Dynatorch mission is to produce the best automated plasma and oxy-fuel cutting equipment available anywhere. We will not compromise this mission to be all things to all people.
Dynatorch gantries are light, VERY rigid low inertia units optimized for plasma cutting. A low inertia gantry can move back and forth rapidly producing exceptional detail work in all thicknesses of material.
A gantry designed for routing must be able to support a heavy router and push a router bit through the densest wood or plastic. The carriage, bearing / rail structure, and beams need to be of a heavier, high inertia design not needed in a plasma gantry. Inertia is not as big an impediment in routing as plasma cutting since routers typically cut at much slower speeds. Excessive, unneeded detail dampening inertia has been engineered out of Dynatorch gantry designs.
Routing and plasma cutting do not mix on the same machine. What happens to the accumulated wood routing dust when the plasma cutting sparks at 20,000 degrees hit it? Someone will have to call the fire department
Most of us have learned the hard way that a tool advertised as capable of doing many jobs is usually UNABLE to do any job as well as a tool designed for a specific task. Dynatorch is a task specific designed product, we like it that way and so will you.
Dynatorch supplies brushless servo motor powered, industrial quality, CNC plasma gas cutting equipment. We do not employ open loop stepper motors. We do not make home owner or hobbyist kit grade products. We build for the professional trades that will give decades of reliable industrial grade performance.
Unlike other vendors in this market, Dynatorch software is developed in house. We spent 4 years developing and beta testing our software prior to selling the first system. It is designed exclusively for the plasma and oxyfuel cutting operation. While other vendors adapt software written for milling machines, we addressed the specific concerns for plasma cutting services. Plasma cutting requires unique features that these other adapted software products can not supply. There is, for instance, no arc voltage height adjustment in a milling machine.
Our Dynatorch developed plasma software has proven so effective that a variant of our software called JenCNC was developed by Dynatorch and licensed to Animatics for use in 3 axis (non plasma cutting) motion control applications.
Is it difficult to import my drawings into
Dynatorch cutting software?
It is very easy. Our software allows the direct import of DXF formatted drawing files. The DXF format is a universal drawing exchange format supported by all CAD programs and most art creation software like Corel. Our software allows you to optimize DXF files for CNC cutting, create arrays, scaling the size of your object to be cut, and many other very useful features.
Definitely not. The Dynatorch system, like systems costing $50k and up, use a CNC machine torch. Machine torches provide a cleaner more precise cut than cruder hand torches. Machine torches use different consumables (tips) that give the more precise cut. A hand torch is meant to be dragged across the material by the human hand. Machine torches are designed to optimize CNC operation.
It sure can. In
addition to plasma cutting, the Dynatorch cutting system offers automated
Oxy-Acetylene cutting ability at no extra cost. At
the click of a screen button Dynatorch software reconfigures itself from plasma
cutting to oxy-acetylene cutting. The
screen windows normally associated with plasma cutting (arc voltage and arc
voltage set point) are replaced with screen windows required for oxy-acetylene
cutting. Provisions are made for preheat, start, and post flow control. All
timing functions are easily adjustable on the cutting screen at the click of
simple arrow keys.
The
Dynatorch electrical interface console provides output voltages under software control
needed to activate the gas solenoids on automation equipped oxy acetylene
systems. All
of the above is provided as part of the basic drive system. No additional
dollars needed.
By keeping up with the latest technology...the same can be said for a PC manufacturer who can sell a 3.1GHz-1Gig Ram PC for under $500 when the first 1980’s IBM 8MHz - 64K ram PC's were $3000. How about digital cameras? They are now under $50. The new cost effective technology is out there, you just have to implement it. Stepper motors are OLD technology. By using the Intelligent Brushless Servomotors, Dynatorch has been able to eliminate all of the external power amplifier and feedback cabling trouble prone components needed by our competitors. The intelligent motor has that control integrated into its body. This is just one example of eliminating old electronic components. We are able to pass the savings on to you.
If intelligent motors are so great why doesn’t your competition use them also?
We really don’t know. When intelligent motors arrived on the scene some years ago, we immediately noticed their technical advantages. However, years ago, the cost of these motors was very high. While others may have dismissed this product because of its expense, we gambled that, like the price of the PC, the cost would come down. Our gamble paid off. When we started development back in 1998, we decided not to pursue the stepper motor angle and started writing software for the intelligent motors. The product you see today is the result of these years of development. If our competition was to switch to intelligent motors today, they would probably have several years of development before they catch up. We, on the other hand, have begun looking into even newer technologies, that today are too expensive to bring to mass market, but we believe will become affordable. We can only imagine that some of our competition regrets their decision every day. We are now the fastest growing CNC Plasma cutting business in this market.
Absolutely not. The use of G-Coding in our system is entirely transparent to the user. The user is free to use the advanced G-Code creating and editing features or ignore them altogether. Dynatorch software use is the easiest to learn of any CNC package on the market. Dynatorch is willing to send you a copy of our software and train you in its use BEFORE YOU BUY free of charge. That is how sure we are you will be favorably impressed with our product.
No, all components are included in the price of the basic drive system cost. Dynatorch feels a high quality arc voltage torch height controller is essential to the proper operation of a CNC plasma cutting system. Believing this, we designed it into the basic software as an integral component. Some of our competitors offer an independent unit at extra cost. We also offer our own independent torch height control for non Dynatorch control systems, but we prefer the integrated method. We believe if the torch knows what the CNC is doing at all times, and vice-versa, then cut quality can get even better. Arc voltage technology is today’s preferred method of height control. Be careful, not all torch height controllers use arc voltage technology, ask before you buy. If you get an evasive answer be suspicious. Don’t be fooled.
It is very important for a CNC Plasma Drive controller not only to be able to turn on your plasma generator, but ALSO to be able to recognize when an arc is established. Just because a plasma generator receives a signal to turn on, it doesn’t mean a cutting arc is present. The plasma generator may be turned off; no compressed air available or no ground clamp connection present. All these will keep a cutting arc from being established.
The more sophisticated plasma drive systems (like Dynatorch) will not start moving the torch at the beginning of a cut unless a cutting arc is present. Additionally, a good controller will stop the torch while in a cutting operation should the cutting arc cease for any reason. Failure to recognize lack of a cutting arc at cut initiation or stop torch motion if an arc fails, will result in a problematic and annoying exercise in torch repositioning. Imagine you are in the middle of a cut and you lose the arc. If the controller can’t see the loss of the arc, the torch will continue the cutting motion even with no arc.
How does the Dynatorch drive controller know whether an arc is present? Plasma generators properly equipped for automation can send to the Dynatorch controller an electronic signal, called plasma arc transfer, that indicates a cutting arc is present. The Dynatorch controller takes appropriate actions in response to that plasma arc transfer signal.
Many less sophisticated systems do not have the ability to process the plasma arc transfer signals. The net result to you is a great deal of time wasted with poor “workarounds” to overcome this lack of technological ability.
A good question to ask your prospective CNC plasma cutting vendor is: HOW
or IF they can utilize the Plasma Arc Transfer signals?
All vendors, like Dynatorch, with software and electronics optimized for
plasma cutting will give a positive reply.
Dynatorch, in its effort to produce a more reliable CNC motion table has chosen to employ a gearbox drive in its system. It cost us at least 10 times more to employ a gearbox than a toothed belt drive. Our gear boxes are sealed units that are immune to the abrasive plasma dust generated by plasma cutting. Tooth belt systems do not stand up to long term use in plasma cutting. Gear boxes can transmit torque very well at any operating speed and are unaffected by quick changes in drive rotation . All this adds up to longer life which we couldn't get with timing belts. The new style gearboxes we use employ helical cut gears for very quiet operation, gearboxes with straight cut gears are very noisy.
Our precision planetary drive gearboxes are designed for use in a high precision CNC environment. The included backlash is typically 3, but for sure less than 6 arc-minutes. The typical tooth belt drive working in an abrasive plasma environment will be three times that. Likewise, our rack and pinion is dynamically preloaded to prevent backlash, allowing it to self adjust and maintain no backlash during the cutting cycle. Statically adjusted preload used on some other machines have trouble with tight spots causing binding and non-preload causing backlash.
Our gearbox spec states "the included backlash is typically 3 but for sure less than 6 arc minutes" Well...? is that good or bad? Please define that...
Gearbox backlash is the angular rotation in degrees, minutes, and seconds of the amount of play in a shaft. What that means is; if you were rotating a shaft in one direction, pushing a load forward, then you reversed the rotation, the amount of free play before the load starts to move in the opposite direction is the backlash. It is measured in degrees, or parts of a degree (there are 60 minutes in a degree, and 60 seconds in a minute). The best explanation I ever heard for arc-minutes, or arc-seconds, is this.... If an airplane left New York City heading in a straight line for Los Angeles and was off by ONE-ARC-SECOND, it would miss the center of the runway in L.A. by 12 feet. So over a distance of 3000 miles, you would be off by 12 feet. If you were off by 1 ARC-MINUTE, you would miss the runway by 60 times 12, or 720 feet. (about 2 football fields).
Yes, a customer can save a substantial amount of money in the cost of the table, crating and shipping by building the table themselves. We will even supply the blueprints free of charge. The table is easy to build with no special tooling or fixtures.
We provide tech. support 7 days a week from 8 AM to 9 PM Central time (no calls answered Sunday AM). The same people that designed the various system components are the same people that answer the tech support phones. This assures the highest level of technical competence to answer your issues. All this, of course, is free to you or your staff. This level of support is also available to subsequent owners of your system free of charge
We’d be glad to, just ask us. Having customers pleased with the ENTIRE experience of dealing with Dynatorch is our only goal.