Lifetime of the Consumables
The lifetime of our products is the absolute focus of the work of Kjellberg Finsterwalde's construction and development department. The consumables are especially important in this respect because they are exposed to high voltages and thus also to high stress.
The Use of Consumables
There are a couple of important points to consider so that our consumables can produce optimum results:
- Please make sure that the required purity of all used gases is observed. The gas air must be dry and free of oil and grease.
- By blowing the torch after every change of the consumables the amount of moisture in the system can be eliminated and a reliable ignition process can be ensured.
- Please use clean consumables only.
- Please use a piercing regime that does not stress the nozzles (ignition height, cutting height and motion sequence of the torch) that is according to the cutting data set.
- Please make sure that the distance between torch and workpiece is kept constant during cutting. This can easily be realised with a height control unit.
- Please make sure that all cuts start and end on the workpiece in order to avoid an abrupt break-off at the end of the cutting process. Please bear in mind that only a single break-off reduces the lifetime of the cathode by about ten piercings.
- Please use the up-slope and down-slope options at the start and end of the cut, if possible. That means that the current is increased or reduced for a certain period of time. This reduces abrupt stresses on the cathode so that it has a longer lifetime.
- Please never ignite the torch in the air. The pilot arc would burn between cathode and nozzle for a needlessly long time which reduces the lifetime of the consumables.
- During cutting, the torch must never touch the workpiece surface. A free gas flow must be guaranteed.
- It is recommended to use chain cuts which reduce the number of ignitions necessary and, therefore, increase the lifetime of consumables.
It should be noted that – similar to the fuel consumption of a car – the lifetime of the consumables is influence to about 30 to 40% by basic conditions like handling, piercing technology, programming of the cutting task or purity of the gases. Often, these conditions can be considerably improved in practical use. Furthermore, the lifetime of consumables depends on many factors in connection with the specific cutting task, e. g. the material, the purity of the used gases, cutting current, cutting voltage, cutting length per part, number of piercings or cutting speed. Thus, a highly differentiated approach is necessary to be able to make specific statements as to what lifetimes can be achieved.
Cost Efficiency with Original Kjellberg Consumables
Generally, Kjellberg Finsterwalde urge all customers to use exclusively original Kjellberg parts! Therefore, it should be noted that the use of copy parts leads to a considerably lower cutting quality and shorter lifetime. Further, the product warranty is forfeited. Using copy parts means that you will need much more consumables in the long run and the copies may even cause serious damage to the torch or to persons. In addition to an increased demand of consumables further repair costs will occur. The costs resulting therefrom are many times higher and what you thought of as cost savings may turn out to be a cost trap.