Systems and methods for providing power for plasma arc cutting

• Main Authors: Chin, Wayne, Passage, Christopher S, Selmer, Shane M, LeBlanc, Norman, Kamath, Girish R
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 07.04.2020
• Subjects: CLADDING OR PLATING BY SOLDERING OR WELDING; CUTTING BY APPLYING HEAT LOCALLY, e.g. FLAME CUTTING; ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PLASMA TECHNIQUE; PRODUCTION OF ACCELERATED ELECTRICALLY-CHARGED PARTICLES OR OFNEUTRONS; PRODUCTION OR ACCELERATION OF NEUTRAL MOLECULAR OR ATOMICBEAMS; SOLDERING OR UNSOLDERING; TRANSPORTING; WELDING; WORKING BY LASER BEAM

A plasma cutting system includes a plasma torch having a head, and a housing. A power supply is disposed within the housing and is in communication with the plasma torch. The power supply is configured to provide an output current for generating and maintaining a plasma cutting arc by the plasma torch, and includes a control processor in communication with a plurality of autonomous switching circuits via a multi-node communications bus. Each of the autonomous switching circuits includes a microcontroller configured to control the generation of a portion of the output current based on messages received from the control processor, monitor operating parameters of the autonomous switching circuit, and modify a control parameter of the autonomous switching circuit independent of and asynchronous to the other autonomous switching circuits of the plurality of autonomous switching circuits when one or more of the operating parameters exceeds a predetermined threshold.