Air drying system recommendation for CNC plasma cutting

[Cleave]

I work with a small weld shop that has a Hypertherm 105 plasma cutter on a 5'x10' CNC table.
Currently there's an 80 gallon compressor with no air drying at all.
The cut quality leaves something to be desired, resulting in a lot of grinding time and some scrapped parts.
I know there are other factors in cut quality to investigate, but I'm interested in an appropriately sized, quality air drying system.
While budget is important, I have mixed feelings about the cheapest options shown on Amazon.

Does anyone have personal experience with a good system for this application?

 

[LeeG]

If I were doing it commercially, I’d look at something like this: https://eatoncompressor.com/product/air-dryer-refrigerated-30-cfm/

For my home shop, I run though the standard desiccant filters, then though a M30 paper filter. Kind of expensive to keep up for all day operations.

 

[kwb]

I have no dryer on my machine - I have gotten my 1/4" settings spot on. 3/8" is very good. 1/8" I am sort of limited there since my machine doesn't like to run the ipm recommended so I am still playing with how far to take down the amps on the plasma cutter to improve cut quality.

Depending on how much use the table gets - I would be inclined to just use a small desiccant dryer. You probably have other parameters causing the bulk of your issues. Now if you are getting a lot of water out of your air system elsewhere then maybe a full system dryer is to be considered.

Knocking the dross off with a hammer is also a lot faster and cleaner than grinding it all. Still a bit of grinding sometimes but a lot of that depends on exactly what the part is.

 

[cannuck]

I have built a few systems that require very dry air with constant flow. The minimum you should consider is a wet tank with an automatic drain feeding a dry tank. With what you already have, I might suggest you put a fan cooled good size primary cooler between the compressor head and the wet tank. Feed the dry tank through a refrigerated dryer and work from the top of the dry tank. If you still aren't getting dry enough air, then you need to look at an automatic dessicating unit that cycles 50% time through one column and the rest through the other while the first is being re-generated (dried). I have paid around $3k for such a dessicant (1/2" in and out). The drying flow for regeneration will cost you maybe 10% of your total air use.

For my own next shop I have managed to buy the components for a 3 tank system going from wet receiver with one refrigerant dryer on skid to another refrig unit feeding a main working tank. IF I need super dry air through regen dessicant columns to the third. That slightly overboard system can deliver -60C dew point air all day long. I am hoping I can run a plasma table from the second tank, so will be very interested to hear how you do.

 

[Cleave]

We cut 3/16" - 3/4" regularly, for steel jobs where we're shipping out 40,000 lb on a single trailer.
There may be over 100 of the same part, for the smaller tabs and such.
We farm out parts thicker than 3/4"

Chipping off the dross is faster when it comes that way, then grind the rest. But there's still quite a lot of grinding.

We are in western CO so the ambient conditions are less humid than many regions.

 

[MoonRise]

Ask Hypertherm. They usually want to help the users of their machines get good performance out of the machines.

How to troubleshoot cut quality problems – too much dross (slag)

How does a plasma cutting system torch operator begin to troubleshoot a dross problem? By controlling the critical process variables, the operator can minimize or eliminate dross and the associated costs of secondary operations.

www.hypertherm.com

Improve cut quality with these CNC steel and metal cutting tips

There are a lot of factors that go into producing a quality plasma cut. This plasma cutting tips reference guide offers several solutions to help improve cut quality. It is important to try and work through all of the relevant suggestions provided – as often there are many different factors to...

www.hypertherm.com

Clean DRY air always helps with plasma cut quality AND with consumable longevity.

Plasma cut quality is also highly dependent on good consumables and proper parameters. Actual Hypertherm consumables and not counterfeit or cheapo aftermarket stuff.

A PM105 says it will use ~10 cfm of air at 90 psi. But you feed the machine at 110-120 psi. So you are not looking at a small little air dryer. For an actual shop running a CNC plasma, they should have a filter and dryer SYSTEM in place. Wilkerson used to be good stuff, don't know if they still are or not.

Cool and filter the air in stages is my thought. Intercooler, maybe a storage tank after the intercooler, then various stages of filtration before you get to full drying. Industrial desiccant type (possibly a regenerative system) or a refrigerated system would be my first thoughts on the dryer. Possible post-dryer storage/use tank as well.

 

[Cap'n Coldeye]

I still have lot to learn, but this is my 2 car garage set up. I found this air drying unit on CL ($400). I also run a disposable filter right before my Hypertherm to catch particles. I try to read anything I can from a Guy named Jim Colt (I think he worked for Hypertherm). I recently learned that there is a clean and dirty side of most cuts (test cut pic). I now try to stay aware of this when setting the cut path.
Cheers

 

[MoonRise]

Yup, Jim Colt worked (works?) for Hypertherm. Very helpful guy on the forums. Nope, I'm not Jim.

 

[kaymccampbell]

I use this, for home use, and get much better cuts and media blasting. You need something much bigger.

 

[Firstram]

I use a fan cooled Hayden 1299 oil cooler between the compressor and the tank. A water separator and a .01 micron coalescing filter strip an incredible amount of water out before the tank. This is on a 175 psi 24 cfm low speed compressor. This followed by a refrigerated dryer would be ideal!

I have a 1/2 gallon desiccant dryer and motorguard mounted on the Hypertherm 65. I only use a hand torch so it doesn’t see as much use as yours.

 

[uscarry45]

What brand of desiccant filter/canisters are you using? How often do you have to refill?

 

[Firstram]

What brand of desiccant filter/canisters are you using? How often do you have to refill?

I converted a steel water filter housing by adding a dip tube and a sight glass, It holds about 1.75 quarts of beads. Since the air is pretty dry from the after cooler, I only filter air for the plasma cutter or spraying paint. I dry the beads in the oven at 250° and have been using the same 1/2 gallon since 2019.