Field of the Invention
Systems and methods of the present invention relate to plasma cutting, and more specifically to arc plasma cutting using a torch assembly that can be mounted in robotic arm systems.
Description of the Related Art
The use of plasma cutting systems in various industries has grown, including the use of plasma cutting systems with robotic systems. In such applications, the plasma cutting torch is secured to a robotic arm or motion mechanism which moves the torch in many different directions. In fact, in many robotic applications the robot has many different axis of movement. This complex movement often requires the torch to move relative to the robot arm which imparts a rotational movement. Because of the electrical and cooling liquid connections on the torch this rotational movement must be limited so as to not break these connections. Further, after a certain amount of movement the operation must be stopped so as to allow the robotic arm to unwind—which releases any torque from the torch connections. Therefore, the more complex the movement and control of the torch the more often the operation will have to be stopped to unwind the torch. This increases downtime of the cutting operation and can lead to premature failure of the torch connections through constant loading and unloading of torsional stresses. Therefore, torch construction is needed to mitigate these issues.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional, traditional, and proposed approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such approaches with embodiments of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.