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laser repair help needed please?
Our Mercury LaserPro abrubtly stopped working Thursday morning first thing, after chugging on as usual Wednesday Night. Everything works normal, but no laser!. Checked all covers are closed, wires connected, mirrors cleaned, still nada. Power supplies are OK. (replaced them with loan units) Had to remove the laser, and sent it to a firm in South Africa to check over. Apperently there is some kind of "card" whassisname that could be at fault (Appx ZAR 7000 / 700 Euro to repair) or the laser could need re – gassing. This done in Malasia, Cost ZAR 27 000 / 2700 Euro. Is this possible? The cost of a new laser unit is appx ZAR 46 k / 4600 Euro
Thanks to Rodney Gold for the link you mailed me earlier. The service manual came in handy – could check Voltages etc. while hunting down the problem. Will also refer back a lot when I have to re-install the laser.
I should add that the Laser (30W) became extremely slow over the last couple of months. The service technitian I spoke to claims a 3 year lifespan, at 4 hours per day. That makes about 3 – 3500 hours lifespan. Rodney – who had a few of these machines – claims 10 – 20000 hours. Our’s is 3 years old and works between 0 and 16 hours per day – ave about 4 or so. (this mostly down to it being so slow – if working as it should, I’d only use it 1 hr per day.)
We also dont have a UPS on the machine. Could "power spikes" do any damage to the laser unit? I’m not talking lightning, just a sudden drop or rise of 10 – 30V as is commonly experienced in our system.
I’d greatly appreciate any comments you could have.
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5 Replies
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It has a synrad laser , made in the good ol USA , supposed to have a 20 000 hour life which is absolute bull , we never had more than a yr with ANY laser source at about a 7 hr daily cycle. (1400-1500 hrs)
What blows is the RF card , there are generally 2 in each laser and this needs to be fixed , symptoms are a drop to about 1/2 power and then nada.
Easy to fix and parts are pennies and easily available – however tuning the tube is flippen expensive as you need to do this on the bench and need expensive equipment. Synrad will send you a DIY white paper if you ask nicely , but
this wont help cos you cant tune the 2 RF (Radio Frequ) boards you have fixed.
I assume you sending it to Stan Woolford in Durban. Its highly unlikely it needs regassing. We have gon thru at least 20-24 sources in the time we have been lasering and its never been a regassing issue.
The Cost to repair should be between 4 and 8 grand ZAR.
When you put it back , add extra cooling fans to the enclosure and blow out the laser fins and enclosure regularily . hHat build up is generally the cause of killing the tube.Bad power is certainly a problem with lasers , in terms of killing the tube and in terms of variability in lasering , banding and all sorts of nasties. We use AC-DC-AC power conditioners with ours (3 Explorers and 3 Spirits)
The mercury is imho one of the best "older" gen lasers out there. It’s a pretty rugged workhorse.
You will have to realign the laser when you do replace it , a lousy fiddly task , but worth it in terms of speed and relaibility.
You should be generating at LEAST Zar 2-3k a day with your machine , at least 40k a month so the R8000 should be money well worth spending.
We had FAR more source problems with our Explorers , which use Coherent/Deos sources , also made in the USA. Funnily enough the USA ppl phoo phoo the GCC machines saying they are Chinese imitiations , they arent , they are damn good platforms let down by cheap yank junk.
Engraving supplies in JHB , the agents for your machine are unfortunately very bad to deal with , so if you going thru them , ride em re delivery and status . -
Just had a call from the crowd at Stan Woolford’s. They say it’s not the RF cards, but a gas issue. Re-gassing will take appx 6 weeks. They can also offer exchange units (stan still has to come back to us with prices etc) Is it really possible that it needs gassing if all the symptoms pointed to it being the RF cards. Just wondering. Stan’s secretary called and said they had it on the test bench, but there is no response. (When I checked the power supplies etc, it sounded as if a fan came on everytime we fired the lazer – from the diagnostic mode. At least that was some response!)
I’m now stuck with waiting for their call back. There goes our Christmas bonus!!
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quote :blow out the laser fins and enclosure regularily . hHat build up is generally the cause of killing the tube.Rodney,
I have a Mercury 30W LaserPro and I have never done this. I do not know what the laser fins are. Could you explain it to me please.
Thanks,
Barbara
RGile Engravers[/left] -
Barbara
If you remove the maintenance cover at the back of the machine, you’ll notice the laser unit has got some cooling fins, similar to those on air cooled lawn mower engines. There will be a few fans in the vicinity as well (with air cooled units) Blow out dust build up with an air jet, or use one of those rubber bulbs with a brush on the end photographers use. Useful treatment on your PC as well.
As an interesting aside: we eventually decided to keep our laser, and install a new laser unit. (at double the cost of re gassing the old one.) When we asked the sales lady ( at our un-named supplier !!) to fax us an invoice, including the serial number of the laser unit, the serial number they send us WAS THE SAME AS OUR OLD UNIT! We pointed out this "peculiarity" , but still no reply. I suspect they are treading water!
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Thank you for the advice, I am going to let my husband take care of it though. I printed out your post and will use it.
Thanks you again. and I am glad that your laser is up and running.
I have also had mine for three years, and so far so good.
My auto focus doesn’t work anymore because the wire somehow broke on it, but that’s been it.
I hope nothing goes wrong anytime soon. We aren’t even in the black with the business yet. We now have a storefront and will be there for two years in May. So hopefully, this year we will finally get into the black and start making some money.
Thanks for getting back to me.
Barbara
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