Flat Plasma vs Five Axis Plasma

Flat plasma cutting is the baseline. The torch stays square to the plate, follows the outline, and cuts the holes and cutouts in the same pass. The part comes off the table with a square cut edge, and any angle on that edge is a second operation.

Five axis plasma adds tilt. The torch rotates so it can cut at an angle to the plate surface, which changes what leaves the table.

What the extra axes buy you

A tilted torch can follow the contour of the part and cut a bevel along it. On a base plate, a stiffener or a connection plate, that bevel becomes the weld preparation, cut at the specified angle and land instead of ground in afterwards.

Contour bevels are confirmed per part. The angle, the land and the finish required are all part of the check, and they are agreed when the work is quoted rather than assumed from the machine specification.

Machining in the same setup

The five axis table at KorFab also carries a 20 HP drill head that drills, taps, counterbores and mills. Cut features and machined features share one program while the plate is still in place.

This matters most on hole patterns that have to stay related to each other. On a flat table the part is cut, then moved to a drill or a mill and re-fixtured, and that second setup is where hole positions drift on a repeat part. In one program, the tapped holes are positioned from the same datum as the outline.

The limits are real, and they are confirmed

• The cut area is 6 ft by 12 ft. A larger part is reviewed as a multi piece assembly before it is quoted.
• Plate thickness runs 1/8 in to 4 in across the range, in carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminum.
• On heavy plate the part is edge started. The pierce limit for a given material is lower than the thickness the table can cut, and it is confirmed when we quote.
• Not every feature on every part can be completed without a further operation. A deep bore, a tight tolerance or a feature the head cannot reach may need a second setup, and the quote should say so.

Thin sheet with fine detail still goes to the laser instead. A five axis table does not make plasma the right process for a 16 gauge cover with small slots.

When flat cutting is the right answer

If the cut edge is only an outside profile, the plate is thin enough that a bevel is not needed, and the holes are drilled later in a separate operation that is already planned, flat cutting does the job. Adding the extra axes only pays when the bevel or the machined hole pattern would otherwise be a second and third handling.

What to put on the drawing

• Bevel detail where an edge becomes a weld preparation: angle, land and which edges.
• Hole callouts with size, thread and depth, and whether they are tapped or clearance.
• The datum the hole pattern is dimensioned from.
• Which edge is visible, so a cosmetic bevel and a structural bevel are not treated the same.
• Material and thickness, and the quantity.

Send the drawing and state what each edge and each hole has to do. That is enough to say whether the part runs on the five axis table in one setup, or needs a further operation.