Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Victory different from other vendors in the market?
Victory supplies brushless servo motor powered industrial quality CNC plasma and gas cutting equipment. We do not use stepper motors or other ‘hobby shop’ grade products in our systems. We supply complete systems ready to produce with all the ‘extras’ our competitors consider options: automatic torch height control, automatic torch collision protection, laser torch pointers, helical planetary drive gear boxes, pneumatic pre-tensioning, automatic squaring and emergency stop switches located where emergency stop switches should be.
Can the Victory equipment be used for routing?
Our heavy-duty tables are designed and built for an industrial environment. While our tables could be used for routing, it would be a waste of your money. For that you need a lightweight table such as those offered by the hobby shop people. Their tables are too lightweight and inaccurate to do our job and ours are overkill to do their job. Multi-use machines generally do not do any one thing well.
Will Victory supply a DIY kit?
Yes, we have a complete kit including the Victory gantry, guide rails, slat holders, legs and other pre-cut parts along with detailed fabrication drawings for those with a fabrication shop and the ability to build their own table. Included in the cost is a three-day final completion/commissioning and training service provided by one of our factory-trained technicians.
Why does Victory include a completion/commissioning service?
When we built tables for a popular marketing company, they sold less-than-complete DIY kits without a completion/commissioning service and created a number of less than happy customers. Setting the gantry, making the final electrical connections, tweaking the alignment and finalizing the job are best left to professionals. We’re happy to do it and get it right the first time! Victory will not sell a DIY kit without the completion/commissioning and start up service.
Is it difficult to import my drawings into Victory cutting software?
Not at all! Our software has been designed for simplicity and ease-of-use. Our software allows the direct import of DXF formatted drawing files. The DXF file is available with almost all CAD and art creation programs. DXF is the universal drawing exchange format. Our software allows you to optimize DXF files for CNC cutting, create arrays and to scale the size of the object to be cut.
In fact, try it out now: download the Victory Software Demo.
Where do I get a DXF drawing to start with?
Our package includes an exceptionally good CAD program that allows you to create drawings from the start, edit drawings or exchange drawings with your customers. Our CAD is completely interchangeable with the world’s leading CAD program, AutoCAD. Although simple to learn and use, it is a robust feature-laden CAD program.
Can I use drawings sent to me by my customers?
Yes! You will be able to open, view, edit and convert all CAD drawings. If they are not sent to you in DXF format you will be able to easily save them as a DXF.
Who developed the Victory software?
Victory software is developed and updated by the software engineers at Clemsoft, leaders in quality cutting software. Clemsoft spent four years developing and beta testing the software prior to selling the first system. It has a proven record of several successful years now operating the machines of a number of OEMs. It is designed exclusively for plasma and oxy-fuel cutting operations. While other vendors adapt software written for milling machines, vinyl sign makers and wood carvers Clemsoft addressed the specific concerns for plasma cutting services. Plasma cutting requires specific features adapted software cannot supply. Our software controls the automatic height lifter station from the cutting screen without the requirement of a separate height control box.
Can the Victory system use an oxy-fuel torch?
Yes, there is a program included in our standard software that operates an oxy-fuel torch. There are a number of gases that can be used with oxygen to cut really thick material. Our tables are designed to support a full sheet of 2” plate in whatever size the table is. On request we can strengthen your table to support additional plate thickness. Some thicknesses require a small change, like additional feet and some will require additional expense for this support.
Can the Victory system use my present plasma cutter with its hand torch?
No. Hand held torches are made to be “hand held,” although some vendors do try to use them in their hobby units. Our machines are industrial grade professional tabls and require a plasma cutter with a machine torch. The machine torches are made for cleaner and much more precision cutting.
Why does Victory use far less cabling than its competitors?
Our intelligent servo system has all the brains in the motors and not in a remote controller. This requires fewer cables and eliminates many of the problems associated with using sophisticated electronics in close proximity to a high frequency start plasma cutter. All Victory cable systems are completely armored. These and other features allow use of any plasma cutter with our system when many of our competitors are limited to cutters of 100 amps or smaller.
Do Victory systems require an independent high dollar height controller when using a plasma cutter larger than 100amps?
No. Our system will accept all plasma cutters designed for automated systems, even the high frequency start units of more than 100 amps. An intergraded Torch Height Controller (one operated through the main cutting program) is much more convenient than a stand-alone unit.
What is automatic squaring?
During installation, the gantry must be installed squarely and hard stops must be installed in the correct places. Once this is done, whenever the machine is started for the first time each day, the operator is asked if he/she would like to “home the machine.” Clicking the radio button for “homing” causes the machine to perform an electronic check and reset of the electronics to correct any possible problem. When “homing” is completed the gantry is guaranteed to produce square cuts even if it has had a bump or has encountered something left on the guide rails. It eliminates the problem of one side being one or two gear teeth ahead of the other that is common on other machines.
What do I do if the torch goes out during a complicated long cut?
Don’t fret, although with some systems you are in big trouble! With the Victory, simply check the bottom of the screen to see what caused the stoppage: Lost Arc or Collision Detector. If the Collision Detector was tripped (maybe you left your lunch bucket sitting in the middle of the table), simply remove the obstruction and then reset the “All On” radio button and click “Start Cycle.” You will then be asked if you would like to restart where the collision occurred, click “yes” and off you go again.
If Lost Arc was the issue, reset the “All On” button and then select “Stop Assistant” at the bottom of the screen. Select “Move the torch to the torch service area.” The torch will move to your preset torch service area where you can check the consumables and replace them if necessary. On completion select the “Move to Where E-Stop Occurred.” After the gantry moved back to its original stopping point, select “Start Cycle.” Not so bad after all and you’ll be able to keep your job!
What happens if my electricity goes out and I am in the middle of a huge cut in the center of a 8’x20’ piece of 1 1/2” Stainless Steel the boss paid $20,000 for and was expecting to sell for $40,000? And it happens on my payday?
Again don’t fret! The Victory is not a hobby machine. When you get the power back on the Victory will know exactly where it was when the lights went out! Pat it on the back and tell it to go again. The boss will never have to know it was your coffee pot that kicked the circuit!
If intelligent motors are so great why aren’t the competition using them?
Intelligent motors were very expensive in the late 1990s but have come to a reasonable price now that so many have been used in motion control systems all over the world. Much research was required to develop wiring and connectors immune to the hi-frequency starts of large plasma cutters. The system we use is the result of years of our supplier’s research and development. I suspect many of our competitors secretly wish they had taken the intelligent route as well!
Do I need to know how G-Code works to use the Victory?
Not at all, the Victory converter does all the work. You will pick up a lot of knowledge about G-Code after you operate the machine awhile.
What is Plasma Arc Transfer and why is it so important?
This is what keeps your cutting program from pretending to cut when it’s not, i.e. if the arc fails to start or after the fire has gone out. Many hobby system vendors claiming to sell industrial quality systems will tell you this is not necessary. It isn’t if your operator has the time to sit by the machine and watch it’s every move and to stop the motion manually when a torch fails to start, a tip burns up or when cutting small pieces and material tips up. At Victory and with all other professional industrial-grade systems we believe this should be automatic. The operator can do other things while the machine is cutting and be assured that it will stop all motion if the fire goes out. This abrupt, complete stop is what allows an accurate and simple restart after the problem has been corrected.
Why does the Victory system use the expensive planetary gearboxes instead of the cheaper timing belts?
We built 38 so-called “industrial tables” for a leading marketer of hobby systems trying to make the cross over. Although the model we built was the top of their line, they insisted on using the tiny static mounted spur gears and rubber belts supplied and used on their entire line of hobby units. This decision proved a major detriment to the accuracy and reliability of what might have been a decent unit. Static drives and rubber belts are the equivalent of installing a Ford Pinto drive train under your jacked-up, camo F-250 all-terrain deer hunting truck. It might get you to the general area a few times but it wont get you into the woods where the big bucks are. We knew better when we developed the Victory system. Any industrial grade table will have planetary gearboxes with 1/2" shafts and no more than 5 arc-minutes of backlash on all axes.
What is an arc-minute?
It is something you don’t want many of! It is the engineering measurement of the degrees of backlash (slop, wiggle, giggle, trouble) when the direction of motion changes abruptly. Believe me: motion changes abruptly when plasma cutting at 250 inches per minute. Good software slows the torch travel momentarily when an abrupt change of direction comes up but backlash is still a critical issue. Rack and pinion drives and planetary gearboxes with close tolerances keep the motion as accurate as the plasma arc can really produce. Water jets and lasers use ball-and-screw drives to produce the accuracy they require to fully utilize their very fine cutting stream.
Why plasma and not water jet or laser?
The cost of a water jet or laser cut per inch of thickness cut is very expensive when compared to plasma. Plasma is very practical and accurate enough for 85% of America’s shape cutting needs. For the other 15% and those with the need to cut non-conductive materials such as rubber, glass and cardboard, water jets or laser would be the answer.
Why do I need a water table? My buddy has a down draft he is happy with, although I do see a lot of brown dust and burned up gloves laying around.
Everything has its place. Downdraft tables are great for light gauge cutting, particularly when coupled with some sort of smoke and dust collector that recirculates cleansed air into the cutting area. Without the recirculation of the cleansed air, your expensive shop heat is pulled out of the building and cold air pulled in through every crack and crevice in the building. Your operators will be trying to ride the gantry to keep warm! The brown dust is the oxidized steel and it will short out printed circuit boards. It seems to me that very few downdraft tables catch more than about 70% of the smoke and dust.
Gloves get burned because thin gauge metal gives up the heat from a cut very fast and operators can remove parts almost immediately. Thicker plate material holds the heat well and will burn right through the operator’s gloves if he tries to unload too soon, particularly if there are a lot of small parts to collect. On the other hand, water tables collect 98% of the smoke and dust without sacrificing any shop heat and all cut parts, thick and thin, large and small can be taken off immediately with a bare hand. Just think of the savings in gloves alone!
Does the water move? Where does the water go in a Victory table? Why is the water table so deep? Is that green stuff I see in the pictures antifreeze?
The water does move from a completely dry cutting bed to a cutting level just under the material or just over the material as desired. It only takes a few CFM of shop air and three minutes to move the water from the bottom storage chamber to completely cover the material on the table. That takes care of the first three questions, now for the third: it isn’t antifreeze, although it does lower the freezing temperature some. It’s 4% Plasma Quench and 96% tap water. Plasma Quench eliminates rust inside the table, on the raw cutting slats and on the material to be cut. A new sheet of material can be left on the table all weekend with the mixture over it, under it or anywhere in between and there will be no rust. There is no odor with Plasma Quench. We have been using our Plasma Quench for two years and see no reason to discard it any time soon. When we decide to change it, the MSDS sheet tells us we can legally dump the diluted mix on the ground or in a sewer. Plasma Quench is non-toxic when diluted to 4% of water volume.
Why would I want a multi-water level cutting bed?
The bottom of the cutting bed is only 6” below the cutting material, so all the small parts cut will stop there if they fall through the slats. It is really nice to lift them out of a dry area and not have to “fish” for them as you do on some competitors’ water tables. In addition, when cutting aluminum the water level should be at least 2” below the bottom of the material to allow the escape of hydrogen.
Why are the Victory cutting slats short and installed in a herringbone pattern?
We use short slats, never over 36” of standard 4”x 3/16” flat bar for cutting slats and install them in the herringbone pattern to make them last longer. When they are short, they are easy to pull out and invert to use the other edge or to exchange with other less used slats on another part of the table. The slats installed from the left hand end of the operator side and along that side get the most cutting time and wear out the fastest. The angled installation helps reduce the chance of a long straight cut right down the top of a slat. We get over a year’s use of our slats by reversing and exchanging them. There are slat holders every three inches, so the additional slats can be added or slats can be moved closer together if cutting a lot of small parts. When cutting a lot of large parts the slats can be farther apart. The 6” on center slats that a Victory is supplied with seems to meet the majority of uses.
I really like the look of the operator station mounted on the gantry. Why aren’t the Victory operator stations mounted on the gantry? I think I would like to be up close, where the action is.
You might watch a Victory in action before you make that decision. There are not that many operators out there fit and healthy enough to keep up with an operator station mounted on the gantry when it’s cutting 1/4" plate at 250 inches per minute. First, you are chasing it and then you’re running from it. The gantry changes directions not on a dime but on a match head! We could put a moving seat on it but you would need a NASCAR safety harness with the new head restraint to ride it. Besides, there isn’t anything much to do during a Victory cut. Whatever needs arise can be more easily dealt with from a few feet away on the comfort of a red bar stool. The units mounted on the gantry are meant for slow and really thick plate cuts or oxy-fuel burns.
