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burn marks on engraving material from laser engraver
Hi all,
Looking for some help if possible. I have a laserpro 30 watt engraver. Been working really well until recently. It has now started leaving burn marks on the edges of the material after cutting out. The engraving does not seek as crisp as it was either. I have cleaned all the mirrors and checked and rechecked focus a number of times. I assume it is power but no settings have been changed. I have tried various materials and cannot seem to resolve this. Any comments muchly appreciated.Peter
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9 Replies
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How many hours use has the laser tube had ? it could be that its degrading or that the power supply is weak… check any transformers for heat damage and check any capacitors for leaks as well as resistors for heat damage.
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Thanks I’ll check that later
Peter -
Engraving quality will not really drop if the tube is going, the output will just get weaker.
You can do simple tests to see if the tube is losing power , just see if it cuts thru 3mm acrylic at the same power and speed it was doing before.
The drop in quality points more , imo , to an optical issue , like a bad lens or a mirror that is scattering the beam or dirty optics.
You say you have checked the focus , but have you checked the beam alignment? -
Hi Rodney, have not checked alignment yet. Can you suggest the best way to do this please4?
Peter
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Beam alignment isn’t easy if you have to do it the first time. If you have a GCC agent , it might be worth paying them to come round and do it for you and watching and seeing what they do , let em "teach" you.
Im not sure what machine you have , but the users manual should have alignment instructions
I have the manuals if you need them , there is also a procedure to get into the diagnostic mode for the lasers so you can get the laser to fire to check alignment. (you also have to bypass the safety switches and its recommended to wear laser resistant glasses , if the beam hits your eye , its a gonner)
What is the exact model you have? -
But it could be that your power supply is pulsing in which case the striking voltage of the tube cannot be sustained causing poor weak and poor quality output of the tube.
Its a bit like a dodgy fluorescent tube flickering/pulsing because the striking voltage is too weak.
But lets hope the beam alignment is out as Rodney has suggested, as this will probably be a lot cheaper to get fixed. -
I like the cheaper repair idea Andrew.
Rodney, the model is a Laser Pro Mercury 30 watt machine. I have no experience working on this so I realise I am looking at a steep learning curve. Any help is greatly appreciated.Peter
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Just a thought… can the power be controlled by the software as well as a control panel on the machine ?, as one maybe overriding the other setting that you think has not changed.
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Hiya , here’s instructions how to get into diagnostic mode on your machine , you need to be in that mode to manually fire the laser to do alignment
Power up the machine while pressing the START/STOP key and the PAUSE key. It should display "Start hardware check Use function key".
I have a maintenance manual for you that describes how to align the machine.
I have uploaded it at
http://www.4shared.com/file/OfnwnGl5/Me … anual.html
you can download it from there
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