Aftermarket Air Assist Nozzle?

We've been using our 50w Epilog Helix 24 for about 8 months now and are starting to get asked about cutting thicker material (wood, acrylic, etc). Has anyone had experience with these aftermarket air assist nozzles that claim to increase your cutting ability by directing the air in a "jet stream" where the laser is cutting? It seems like a logical thing but I don't want to mess anything up by using something that isn't really recommended.

These are the two I've seen:
http://www.factengineering.com/turbo.php
https://www.bell-laser.com/product-p...-epilog-legend

The design and principle makes sense to me, but I'm leery of buying something non-standard for my laser. I'd appreciate any info I could get!

Thanks!

Nothing is going to get you a 70% - 100% increase in speed so I'd take their claim with caution. Also, check the sticky post regarding Bell.

Oh I'm definitely not expecting the wide claim of 70%+ increase, but it does seem like the design would improve things. I'll look into the sticky. Thanks.

What Gary said.... My LS900 has one of the best designed air nozzles out there---

Attachment 362077Attachment 362078Attachment 362080Attachment 362079

Very simple but works, pinpoint airstream, it's moveable, and no stupid cone... Air is adjusted with this black knob, from nothing to the full 125psi line pressure I'm connected to...I can blow small parts right off the table with it if I want! :D

I don't do a lot of cutting, but I have done a few tests with 1/4" oak, maple and plex, and while the air assist may help a bit, I'd wager even a 7% increase to be a stretch, let alone 70%... ;)

I hardly ever use it, and when I do it's just for flare-up control. And back to cones, just my biased opinion but after using 3 machines that never had them and the one that came with one, I've come to the conclusion there are several very good and valid reasons why my old ULS, Gravograph and Explorer came without them. Even after determining my Triumph's beam was in perfect alignment, I found that with it OFF I could, very slowly, cut thru 1" cherry in one pass. With the cone on, it could barely muster 2/3 the way thru. The cone, even with the beam running dead center thru the nozzle, was absorbing laser energy. Maybe my beam isn't perpendicular to earth and is coming down sideways. I don't really care, all I know is it works LOTS better without the cone. And since that test the cone sits in a cup on the laser collecting dust ;)

We tried one of these on a 60w Helix. Vector cutting speed was significantly improved. Most of the improvement comes from their recommendation of running the air assist at 60-80 psi. You can achieve most, if not all, of the speed gains just by doing that. Also make sure your Epilog air assist tube is aimed right at the focal point of the laser. Ours was off a bit. You will need a larger air compressor - the small air brush type wont cut it.

You must run air assist all the time with the nozzle installed, even when engraving. If you don't, the lens will become dust covered very quickly. There is no way to clean the lens with the nozzle installed and it is not easy to remove. That was a problem for us so we have not been using it.

Thanks for the response Chuck. If I recall correctly, our Helix says a max of 30 psi on the rear of the unit where the air line goes in. Do you have to do something else in order to increase that? We are already running a large air compressor but have the line regulated down to 30psi because of what it says on the laser itself.

You should probably stick with Epilog's recommendation. That said, we run 70psi. We didn't make any mods to the air assist. Keep in mind edge quality might suffer somewhat. That didn't mater to us.

air assist is an exact science, you can get up to 20% increase in speed for cutting but not with basic bolt on's, it needs specialist nozzles with measured exit holes and air flow control

as for 70%...ahahahahaha yea right...not on this planet :)

So with air assist is it kind of like too much pressure cools it down and not enough doesn't blow away all the smoke? Is more pointed flow better because it gets into the cracks deeper? I'm thinking if 3d printing a custom air nozzle for mine.