How long is the best use time for laser cutting tubes? How to repair the aging of laser tubes?

The laser tube is the core of the light source of some CO2 laser cutting machines and laser marking machines. It usually consists of three parts: hard glass, resonant cavity, and electrodes. The hard glass part also includes a three-layer structure of discharge tube, water cooling jacket, and gas storage jacket. . Lasers are consumables, so life becomes a key factor for users to choose and buy. The difference in life is mainly caused by processing technology and design technology. Domestic glass lasers generally need to be replaced every 1500 hours; foreign products generally have better quality, stable light output, low failure rate, and can be repeatedly inflated for more than ten years of normal use. Baiwei laser cutting machine cooperates with the German TRUMPF company to use its company's laser cutting machine to achieve high-efficiency production How long is the life of the laser tube? How to repair the aging of the laser tube? Next, let's learn about it with Baiwei Laser.




    How long is the life of the laser tube?
The general life is 5000-10000 hours, but when the laser tube works continuously for more than 4 hours, the laser tube will rise rapidly. When the speed of temperature rise exceeds the speed of heat dissipation of the laser tube, the load of the laser tube will increase, and the laser tube will be in In the case of high temperature, the life will decrease rapidly.
    How to repair the aging of laser tube?
 Judgment method of laser tube failure
1. Visual inspection
No-load test machine, observe whether there are red light spots on the instant object pot, and compare the size and brightness of the light spots with the normal machine, according to whether there are light spots, dim light spots or time
If it is not bright when it is on, it can be judged whether the light pipe is abnormal.
2. Resistance method
Short-circuit the protection point on the laser head and ground the workbench to measure the forward and reverse resistance of the laser emitting diode. Under normal circumstances, the forward resistance is 18k-36k. The reverse resistance
The resistance is ∞, otherwise it means that the laser tube is aging or has poor performance.
3. Current method
Measure the voltage drop across the load resistance of the laser diode emitter, calculate its on-circuit current, and compare it with the rated current marked on the laser head. If the measured value is obvious
Greater or lower than the rated value, indicating that the laser tube has been damaged.
4. Power method
Use the laser power detector probe to align the laser objective lens to directly measure the laser power, and the reading should be above 0.1mW. If it is less than 0.1mW, the laser tube is aging.
At this time, the optical power potentiometer on the mixing head can be adjusted to see if the laser power can be recovered.
    Replacement of the laser tube
When dismantling the astigmatism tube, it is necessary to quickly weld the three pins of the laser tube, and the time should not exceed 3 seconds. Before installing the new light tube, it should be inspected and confirmed to be normal.
When welding, the common pins of the laser tube should be aligned with the small horizontal bar mark on the plastic base tape of the cable, and it can be quickly installed.
   Precautions for the use of laser tubes
1.When using, please connect the cooling water first, choose the principle of low input and high output, adjust the position of the water outlet pipe, please ensure that the cooling water is filled with oil, and there can be no bubbles in the pipe, and then turn on the power.
2. The two support points of the laser tube should be at the point of 1/4 of the total length of the laser tube, to ensure that the flow rate of cooling water is 2L-4L/min; otherwise, the effect is not good, it will cause mode jumping, and the spot will change to several points, resulting in power Down; the cooling water return port must be covered with water in the water tank, otherwise the cooling water in the laser tube will not be filled every time the machine is turned off.
3. Pay attention to the maintenance of the output window of the laser to prevent the smoke generated during the operation (including the debugging of the optical path) from sputtering to the surface of the output window, to prevent the surface of the output window from being polluted, and the power will drop. At this time, absorbent cotton or silk can be used to dip Gently wipe the surface of the output port with anhydrous alcohol.
4. During the debugging process, adjust the laser support point or rotate the laser orientation to achieve the best output effect, and then fix the laser.
5. To prevent the accumulation of dust near the high-voltage electrode, keep it dry, and keep the high-voltage end as far away from the metal as possible to prevent high-voltage ignition and discharge.
6. During the operation of the laser, there should be no scale formed in the cooling pipe to prevent the formation of cooling water blockage and the deterioration of heat dissipation. Once found, the cooling pipe can be cleaned with 20% dilute hydrochloric acid to remove scale.




So how to choose a laser cutting machine?
Baiwei laser is an enterprises,engaged in researching and developing, manufacturing and saling, medium power laser processing complete sets of equipment, including small and medium-sized power fiber laser cutting machine, electro-hydraulic servo press brake, CNC shearing machine, and providing customers with personalized solutions and professional sheet metal processing system.