Uherské Hradiště in the Czech Republic. The facility covers an area of approximately 5 acres (2ha) and includes production and assembly halls, warehouse stock and office buildings for more than 200 Thermacut employees. The international sales department is located at Kunin in the Czech Republic and serves not only domestic accounts but also customers in more than 40 countries worldwide. Thermacut’s specific emphasis is the manufacturing and sales of replacement and spare parts, consumables and replacement torch heads for plasma cutting/welding with additional product offerings for MIG/MAG and TIG manual welding. Research and development program Thermacut maintains an engineering department at the Czech production facility where it employs plasma cutting and welding specialists engaged in designing enhanced replacement parts for OEM products. Thermacut also operates a plasma cutting laboratory. The lab is equipped with the leading OEM plasma cutting systems, which allow the cutting performance of the individual Thermacut replacement parts to be tested. Because most OEM cutting systems are protected by patents, Thermacut has the opportunity not to simply re-engineer certain products but to also develop enhanced replacement parts which circumvent patents and in many cases exceed the properties of original parts. Based on the test results, unique solutions are developed for the individual components and consumables (material used, design, flow rates etc.) The results are high durability of the parts and improved cut quality. Advanced consumables Significant manufacturing attention is paid to electrodes and nozzles because these consumable parts are most frequently replaced and also influence the cutting quality and speed to a great degree. Examples of Thermacut's unique innovations are the offerings of the SilverEx- (Ag) electrodes, and the TungstenEX- (Wf) nozzles with tungsten inserts and coatings for mechanized plasma processes. The SilverEx- electrodes and the TungstenEX- nozzles offer a number of significant advantages: higher cutting current based on the lower electrical resistance of silver, a higher number of start-ups because silver is a superior thermal conductor (vs. copper); therefore the silver electrodes operate cooler than the bi-metallic or copper electrodes while also generating an improved arc force. The TungstenEX- nozzles more than double the life of (conventional) nozzle orifices, thus again improving the process, while maintaining a focused plasma cutting arc. This results in 15-30% higher cutting speed,(depending on thickness of material being cut) less dross, minimum kerf angle, and longer lifetime of both the electrodes and the nozzles while extending the life torch itself due