Editing Plasma cutting (section)

==History==
[[Image:Plasma tilting head.jpg|thumb|right|Plasma cutting with a tilting head]] 
Plasma cutting grew out of [[Plasma arc welding|plasma welding]] in the 1960s, and emerged as a very productive way to cut sheet metal and plate in the 1980s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefabricator.com/thefabricator/article/plasmacutting/the-life-and-times-of-plasma-cutting|title=The life and times of plasma cutting|website=www.thefabricator.com}}</ref> It had the advantages over traditional "metal against metal" cutting of producing no metal chips, giving accurate cuts, and producing a cleaner edge than [[oxy-fuel welding and cutting|oxy-fuel cutting]]. Early plasma cutters were large, somewhat slow and expensive and, therefore, tended to be dedicated to repeating cutting patterns in a "mass production" mode.

As with other machine tools, CNC (computer numerical control) technology was applied to plasma cutting machines in the late 1980s into the 1990s, giving plasma cutting machines greater flexibility to cut diverse shapes "on demand" based on a set of instructions that were programmed into the machine's numerical control.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefabricator.com/thefabricator/article/plasmacutting/making-plasma-cutting-easier|title=Making plasma cutting easier|website=www.thefabricator.com}}</ref> These CNC plasma cutting machines were, however, generally limited to cutting patterns and parts in flat sheets of steel, using only two axes of motion (referred to as X Y cutting).