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View Full Version : Red dot now has a line through it?



Allan Longson
08-19-2011, 6:15 PM
We turned on our Universal laser machine this morning and noticed we had two red dots on our working surface, the main one and a shadow behind it. We have now determined that the beam coming out of the collinator has a line through it. If we wiggle the laser unit this line can also change to a cross. Does anyone have an idea of what has gone wrong? Is our laser unit dying or should we suspect something has gone wrong with the collinator? We haven't touched anything since the previous day so am puzzled as to what is going on. Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

Chuck Stone
08-19-2011, 8:32 PM
it sounds like loose/broken glass somewhere .. lens, mirror... I don't know that particular machine though.
I don't know anything about the collimator either, but does it have more than one piece of glass?
I can imagine one of them coming loose and causing a secondary reflection or causing the beam
to split

Allan Longson
08-19-2011, 8:42 PM
I could have explained things better. The beam is still there and looks ok, what we now have is a line each side of the beam (draw a line and then put a dot in the middle). If we jiggle the laser unit around the line sometimes changes to a cross radiating out from the center beam. We have taken the laser unit off and looked at the collinator, it appears to be ok and we used a laser pen to test it and the beam coming out the other side was fine. So this removes all lenses and mirrors that are outside the laser from the equation.
The only thing left is the laser unit, sigh, it looks like it might be an expensive end to the week.....

Rodne Gold
08-20-2011, 12:10 AM
It can be the red beam diode has gone faulty or its lens has some dirt or spatter or is bust. The red dot has nothing to do with lasering , its a separate system for indication, If your lasering is faulty , then something common to both , like an optic, is the issue.

Allan Longson
08-20-2011, 5:14 AM
Thanks Rodney, that really helps to explain things. I was away from the office for the last two days and found out that the day before they had changed the lens with a chinese purchased one. The focal length is different with the lens which is why we were getting a thick line that looked like a raster instead of a vector. Once we moved the bed down and experimented with the focal length, our vector lines were cutting well.
Aside from the different focal length (our universal supplied lens is a 2" focus and the replacement chinese lens is 3") the chinese lens appears to work well. Will let everyone know how it is going in 6 months time.