O.E.M. Haas-Kamp on TD plasma cutter ?

[DDoug]

Picked up an old Thermal Dynamics Pak-5xr the other day, downloaded the manual.

Mine is the single phase version.

However, looking at the schematic, it appears the factory simply did a Haas-Kamp (or similar)
change for single phase. Those caps are 60 mfd each, the resistors are simply the bleed
resistors, that come attached across the terminals.

However, looking thru the parts list, the "single phase" xformer is listed as a different
part number. But it still has 3 input windings, and there is still 12 output diodes.

FWIW Hypertherm machine (max40) same time frame, used a completely different xformer
for single phase (and a simple 4 diode bridge rectifier) as would be "normal".

 

[DaveKamp]

Hi Doug!

So, a year and a half ago, I acquired a well-used/retired CNC plasma table that came with a TD PAK1000, and inside it, was the remains of it's wiring schematic, and PART of the visible segment included a reference to single-phase wiring, but not enough for me to discern exactly what they'd done, or wether it concurred to the unit that I had, but I SUSPECTED that they may have had some phasing solution engineered into the unit.

From a purist standpoint, I don't see any reason why they COULDN'T have done it... obviously, I could make it work with a 3-phase welding transformer, right?

The goofy thing about my PAK, was that it had THREE power levels... and they accomplished it by having TWO 3-phase power transformers... one for something like 40A, the other for 60, and if you needed Full Monte, you got both.

This makes for a little bit of loading complexity that isn't particularly predictable in a rather 'blind' estimation. I DID try to wire it up with phasing, and while it did fire right up... after about a minute of burning a piece of 1" plate in the driveway, Sage (my little black barn kitty) came running out the door, yelling that something was very wrong...

... and it was... the Feline Smoke Alarm was in full alert.

She's such a smart cat... if she could talk, she'd be calling me something ban-worthy here... :-)

So yeah, but they certainly didn't steal any ideas from ME. Credit where do- they dun it too!!!