[PokeyTeacher]

I'm looking at purchasing a Koike Aronson Monograph Millennium Series CNC Plasma cutter in the very near future. Before I go any further with the purchase, does anyone have any insight into this piece of equipment? Any kind of info, positive or negative, would be greatly appreciated.

[linatrol god]

Koike makes good machines, one of the world leaders in profile cutting machines. Would this be new or used? They use various CNC manufacturers for their controls. Which CNC is on the one you are looking at?

[PokeyTeacher]

I appreciate your response. I will purchasing this new. From the literature that I have, the CNC control that will come with it, is Koike KAR CNC PC based, which operates on Windows XP. That is all that I could find on it, from what I have. One other thing maybe you can help with? One model comes with a floating head, another model, that is more expensive, incorporates what they call an H3 Lifter head. What does this exactly mean and which one would you go with? Thanks again.

[linatrol god]

Im afraid I cannot help you there. I have never heard of that type of CNC control. As I said Koike uses different types, the CNC controls that we manufacture and that they purchase from us are Hybrid D11, Hybrid D9 and D10, Promotion and Profiler. I have no idea what a KAR is.
Sorry

[linatrol god]

The floating head is a pneumatic type torch hieght control, you set the height and it keeps itself at that height by rolling on balls across the plate and is held in place by the air pressure, usually used for thinner gauge.
The expensive height control would be best if you are cutting heavier gauge material, it will the set the voltage of the arc, monitor it and adjust the torch height to keep the voltage constant, therefore keeping the torch height steady.

[m230042]

The floating head is a pneumatic type torch hieght control, you set the height and it keeps itself at that height by rolling on balls across the plate and is held in place by the air pressure, usually used for thinner gauge.
The expensive height control would be best if you are cutting heavier gauge material, it will the set the voltage of the arc, monitor it and adjust the torch height to keep the voltage constant, therefore keeping the torch height steady.

Cal ...I assume.

The weight of the torch plus lifter assembly plays hell on thin gauge plate as it rolls over the cutting slats. sometimes enough to crimp the sheet leaving dimples all over it as the balls roll across the slats. It also has a tendency to move the sheet around. If the sheet is clamped in place, there are no drop parts within 3 inches of your cut path and the steel is thick enough to support the weight the the roller ball floating head is dandy. Otherwise go with the auto height control. The one qouted only has a 3 inch stroke Drive and control is contained with in the motor and was a bear to get to work right when we first played with it...but it works fine after rodney got finished with it.

Marv

[m230042]

Im afraid I cannot help you there. I have never heard of that type of CNC control. As I said Koike uses different types, the CNC controls that we manufacture and that they purchase from us are Hybrid D11, Hybrid D9 and D10, Promotion and Profiler. I have no idea what a KAR is.
Sorry

KAR stands for Koike Aronson Ransom. It is the US division of Koike Sanso Koygo (Koike Oxygen Company) KSK

They did use a few japaneese contrived controllers in the early days. Not recieved well here by Koike or the techs. The were not sold in the US.

KAR CNC is Pro-motion out of Finland. CNC Cutter Plasma Machine For Sale Shape Cutting Used CNC Plasma Cutter Machines Retrofits Controls Nice control, totaly self contained drives and I/O. three levels of software. It has comprension issues for users. But it is quite powerfull.
The D-80 (Hypertherm edge)/ D-11 (Linatrol) Are hands down the most logical controller to use. Burny is reliable but Hard to understand.

I understand that a new controller is coming out of Europe. No details as of yet.

Very few parts come from japan on Koike machines.
Koike bought out Airco and Aronson back in the '70 and combined the two. There are machines made in japan but they are copies of the KAR designs. KSK Does build the big lasers and super duty Mynuc machines.

As a general rule on Ik machines. painted orange ...airco, baby poo green Japanese built, Koike american built, Blue on older and small ik's red on newer style.

There are cheaper machines... But I dare you to find a better one.

Cheers

[mosdal]

Does anyone know what board this is? Brand? Do you have a schematic?
It was on a Westinghouse HL-752 for X-Y control with a Northrup Grumman amplifier.
The table was Advanced Cuttings Systems assembly from 1996.
Koike Aronson PM-510
Hybrid D11 Linatrol controller
Innerlogic RSVP torch height control

[mosdal]

My plasma table was not breaking the arc detect circuit on startup, so it would never start to move. It's NC when off, open when plasma power source is on and idle, or during start of arc. When arc detected, the PCR (Pilot Control Relay) reverts to NC position, completing the circuit.

I traced it down to an intermittent failure of Relay K5 on this board, a surface mount LZ-24H-C.

Westinghouse HL-752 for X-Y control with a Northrup Grumman amplifier.
The table was Advanced Cuttings Systems assembly from 1996.
Koike Aronson PM-510
Hybrid D11 Linatrol controller
Innerlogic RSVP torch height control

Trigger Start arc is on pins 3 and 4. These pins are closed by relay K3 (model FRL-263 04CL) (socket mount with screw thread ground, not used).
There is a 13kOhm resister.

OK to Move/Motion Start/Transfer Arc Detect circuit is on pins 7 & 8. These pins are closed by relay K5 (model LZ-24H-C) (surface mount)
This connects to the pins on J23 connector, surface mounted (good test points: the pair furthest from the board edge).
These wires go out on pins S & R to my controller.
These wires are related to pins N & M, which are the contacts closed by the K5 relay.
There is a 13kOhm resister.

Relay K2 when grounded against the case will blow the fuses for X and Y travel on the Westinghouse HL752 motor controller. I supported under the other 2 corners of the board with rubber standoffs.

[Al_The_Man]

I think the KAR is 'Koiki Aronson Control', as mentioned, they use different controls, maybe put their name on it, unless they have decided to put their own together.
They used Acroloop at one time which is another PC based motion card with Acrocut software.
Al.

[xjdubber]

if your looking at that price range, I would take a serious look at multicam and messer mg. Both are a better machine and better price.

[m230042]

I think the KAR is 'Koiki Aronson Control', as mentioned, they use different controls, maybe put their name on it, unless they have decided to put their own together.
They used Acroloop at one time which is another PC based motion card with Acrocut software.
Al.

Arcoloop was the biggest mistake koike ever made and all were removed and replaced at koike's cost. I still have a dent in my arm from an acroloop "feature".

We called it the microwave ... I guess it was put together by accroloop for KAR. Damnest contraption I ever worked with.

[m230042]

Oh lord don't remind me of that. koike fired most of engineering after that fiasco.

[Dale Heart]

Pokey, for someone that's about to buy a NEW plasma system you seem to know nothing about plasma systems.

I guess you can get advice here... but the best advice you can get is real world going out and looking at shops with Koiki's in them or hop on a plane to Japan or China and see them getting made.

Also, you should look at other types of cutting as well, like oxy-fuel and laser so you fully understand the difference between them all and what you can expect quality and performance wise.

I guess another piece of advice is to find a few companies that sell the CNC software for these types of machines and ask their opinions. Because, these software guys sell onto any brand and usually know when things are going bad or well etc.

Also, I like Koiki a lot. I like Messer a lot too.

[awjareme]

im running a koike machine thats 3 years old now(used daily), and its been flawless. Plasma cutting is a snap with this machine, we have it incorporated with FastCAM, which is kind of crappy, but whatever you can draw in .dxf can be cut on the table. The servos/cpu have so far proved indestructable. The only thing is if your not familiar with these machines consumables add up fast. I also have oxy/acet integrated. We run the voltage height controller and it is nice for continuous cuts, but if you re-pierce a fair distance away from your last cut, and the plate is out of level/warped.. look out. I believe there is a pierce height controller out as well. Regardless it works well even for metal art, except for FastCAM which throws in an error here and there

[linatrol god]

Dale

"I guess you can get advice here... but the best advice you can get is real world going out and looking at shops with Koiki's in them or hop on a plane to Japan or China and see them getting made"
FYI
Koike machines are made in Arcade, New York.
There are many around the USA, if Pokey Teacher wasnt to go that route and see one in action it should be relatively easy.

[PokeyTeacher]

awjareme, thank you for your response. That is the kind of feedback that I was looking for in terms of the quality of the product.

[Dale Heart]

Dale

"I guess you can get advice here... but the best advice you can get is real world going out and looking at shops with Koiki's in them or hop on a plane to Japan or China and see them getting made"
FYI
Koike machines are made in Arcade, New York.
There are many around the USA, if Pokey Teacher wasnt to go that route and see one in action it should be relatively easy.

I don't pay attention to the American market. I just assumed KA imported their machines. Anyway, go have a look wherever they are made.

[linatrol god]

The KAR control is also called Promotion, it is made by Promotion Controls in the USA. The company I work for manufatured these controls for Promotion for about 8 years. They are a good control but for small jobs shops they are overkill. They are rarely used to their full capacity. Large shops that do alot of cutting and need to nest their parts, have a remnant library, load programs while cutting etc....are they typical shops that need something this powerful.
If the price was right I would go with the Koike machine with the Promotion control on it.

[michelle]

Is there anyone around that uses ProMotion Nest v4.19.16 ? I am trying to create steel silhouette signs and I am having issues using both CorelDRAW X3 AND AutoCad.... is the fix going to mean switching to SolidWorks? ProMotion nest doesn't see most my lines and has issues with splines as well as inserts when using AutoCAD.
Thanks
Michelle