Hello to all and warm greetings from Greece.
I learned a lot while a was read this excellent forum. This is my first post and before i write more asking help i want to ask from forum members to excuse me because i write in such bad English but i am self learned on English Language , only from books and movies but at least i can communicate and open my window to the world . Please excuse any mistakes i make .
Now about my problem , recently a friend of mine while clean an empty shop found on basement an abandoned plasma cutter made in Italy by Cifes.
Model Plasma Jet 35. A nice machine that seems very little or no use at all .
The owner of the basement ask my friend to remove the plasma cutter among other things and put them on trash so my friend get it and give it to me .
The machine have some problem , i must say that i know few electronics and i have a Mig welding machine , and was always my dream a plasma cutter but due to economic crisis and IMF this will stay as dream except if i can repair it .
So i connect the air from my shop air compressor and start the machine.
I put the negative clip on a piece of metal and pull the trigger. Machine do nothing most of times but if the nozzle touch the metal and push few times the trigger machine start for about 1-2 sec. to cut or to scratch the metal to say it better and stops . Again trigger few times again sparks and stop after 1-2 seconds.
Inside now - Machine is old and analog style they have one big transformer
a smaller one , a rectifier two i big wire resistors two big capacitors solenoid valve with air filter and a board.
The board have two relays the one when i pull the trigger close the contacts and contacts stay connected - closed as long as i keep the trigger .
The other relay when i pull the trigger close the contacts for 1-2 sec and then open again automatically even if i keep the trigger pulled .
As long as the contacts of second relay are closed connected e.g. for this 1-2 sec. before opens again automatically i have a High voltage spark between contacts of a part that i dont know his name on english but seems like the part that my dads car have inside car High voltage distributor and open closes like switch. So in this part that have two contacts i see a small blue spark for this 1-2 sec that relay is closed and then stops.
The board have a connector on board with 6 cables - two are the trigger two get about 30 v AC and two go to the solenoid air valves .
on the other end where is the metalic part that i can see the High voltage spark between his contacts is an output from each contact and this two outputs goes to a big toroid core as primary , the secondary of this toroid core goes on one side to a piece of metal tube after solenoid valves that air goes trough and other end goes to a heavy wire wound on ceramic resistor if i am right.
What goes wrong and machine dont work ? Any idea please ?
As i know Cifes not excist any more and so no service available .
I really apreciate any help , i can any run any test you can ask and i can also upload photos of each part if needed.
Again many thanks to all people on forum - what i learned last months from this forum need a life to learn in greece.
Apostolos
I learned a lot while a was read this excellent forum. This is my first post and before i write more asking help i want to ask from forum members to excuse me because i write in such bad English but i am self learned on English Language , only from books and movies but at least i can communicate and open my window to the world . Please excuse any mistakes i make .
Now about my problem , recently a friend of mine while clean an empty shop found on basement an abandoned plasma cutter made in Italy by Cifes.
Model Plasma Jet 35. A nice machine that seems very little or no use at all .
The owner of the basement ask my friend to remove the plasma cutter among other things and put them on trash so my friend get it and give it to me .
The machine have some problem , i must say that i know few electronics and i have a Mig welding machine , and was always my dream a plasma cutter but due to economic crisis and IMF this will stay as dream except if i can repair it .
So i connect the air from my shop air compressor and start the machine.
I put the negative clip on a piece of metal and pull the trigger. Machine do nothing most of times but if the nozzle touch the metal and push few times the trigger machine start for about 1-2 sec. to cut or to scratch the metal to say it better and stops . Again trigger few times again sparks and stop after 1-2 seconds.
Inside now - Machine is old and analog style they have one big transformer
a smaller one , a rectifier two i big wire resistors two big capacitors solenoid valve with air filter and a board.
The board have two relays the one when i pull the trigger close the contacts and contacts stay connected - closed as long as i keep the trigger .
The other relay when i pull the trigger close the contacts for 1-2 sec and then open again automatically even if i keep the trigger pulled .
As long as the contacts of second relay are closed connected e.g. for this 1-2 sec. before opens again automatically i have a High voltage spark between contacts of a part that i dont know his name on english but seems like the part that my dads car have inside car High voltage distributor and open closes like switch. So in this part that have two contacts i see a small blue spark for this 1-2 sec that relay is closed and then stops.
The board have a connector on board with 6 cables - two are the trigger two get about 30 v AC and two go to the solenoid air valves .
on the other end where is the metalic part that i can see the High voltage spark between his contacts is an output from each contact and this two outputs goes to a big toroid core as primary , the secondary of this toroid core goes on one side to a piece of metal tube after solenoid valves that air goes trough and other end goes to a heavy wire wound on ceramic resistor if i am right.
What goes wrong and machine dont work ? Any idea please ?
As i know Cifes not excist any more and so no service available .
I really apreciate any help , i can any run any test you can ask and i can also upload photos of each part if needed.
Again many thanks to all people on forum - what i learned last months from this forum need a life to learn in greece.
Apostolos
