Interesting article on the history of the plasma cutter

[Erie Fred]

Looks pretty thorough, not just a sales pitch for any one brand:

History + Timeline of Plasma Metal Cutting | Park Industries®

Read Park Industries® History of Plasma Cutting to Learn About the Beginnings of Plasma Metal Cutting in the 1950s and See a Timeline of Innovations Year Over Year.

www.parkindustries.com

 

[Ged93]

Really interesting , looking at the past I can only ask to myself what we can expect from the future , I mean nobody in 50s could ever imagine the amount of technology we have nowadays ( fiber lasers , waterjets , plasmas ... ) and look at us now , and the most thrilling thing is that technology keeps growing faster and faster , year after year . Just look at lasers , 5 years ago nobody could imagine to reach such a speed on high thickness materials , and look now at those brand new fiber lasers , they can cut through 40-50 mm easily , and they literally fly during cutting 10-12-15 mm .
At this point , time is the only limit .

I've seen a video of a Trumpf prototype ( already available on the market ) , it's a fiber laser mixed with waterjet technology , in this case there is no abrasive , water is used for cooling and laser protection only .

I believe we will see more about plasma technology , just look at hypertherm XPR , maybe new sources/generators will supply even better cut quality with less energy .