The Word we all want to hear! Save!!

Nobody wants to spend more than they have to.

How do you save money on your Consumables?

Consumables can make up the largest portion of your operating costs, so if there is an opportunity to use less consumables. Why would you not do this?.

Firstly, there are a lot of contributing factors that contribute towards such high usage of consumables. The largest mistake people make though, is changing out their consumables too soon.

Consumable wear is very specific to each individual application so you cannot go by a standard rule of exchanging consumables after every shift or after a certain amount of pierces. This approach can result in a huge amount of monetary loss.

We offer you some free tips to make sure you are changing your consumables correctly and at the right time.

Electrodes: As a rule of thumb, you do not need to change out standard all-copper electrodes until the hafnium pit depth reaches 0.040 to 0.045 inch. On silver electrodes, you can go even longer between change-outs, waiting until the pit depth reaches 0.080”

Nozzle. Generally, the nozzle / electrode change out ratio for standard all-copper electrodes is 1-to-1; however for silver electrodes, the ratio is 2- to-1.

Swirl rings. A swirl ring can easily last up to 50 times longer than your other consumables, meaning you don’t need to replace your swirl ring until you’ve gone through up to 50 electrodes. A key tip to getting proper swirl ring life is correct O-ring lubrication. If you don’t have enough lubricant, you could chip or cause other damage when you insert or extract it.

If you add too much lubricant however, you can block the swirl passages and either create cutting quality issues or improper electrode cooling. You need to make sure that a very small amount of lubricant is placed onto the surface of the O-ring.

Shields. The shield should be changed out when it is visibly worn or when cutting quality deteriorates. Retaining caps are not actually consumables and can easily last through 50 or more nozzle / electrode change outs.

These are just some basic things to look out for. In this economic climate we need to try and save money as best we can.

For any questions please feel free to contact us at info@microstep.co.za or 011 397 6356. We are happy to help you with any questions you might have. Our technical team is always happy to assist.