Overheated Tube?

[Chris Achtschin]

I have a Versa Laser VL200 30 watt laser.
The date on the tube housing is 2006, I am the original owner.
Laser has had light to moderate use with more moderate use for the last couple years.
Recently I've noticed poor performance when the room temp (By the laser) reached about 80 Degrees.
I've helped the situation with fans etc. but still the unacceptable temp is about 82 Degrees.
Is this because of the age of the tube or solely because of the heat?
As I recall since 2006 I think I remember similar problems but never correlated it with heat.
Thanks,
Chris

[Bert Kemp]

Heat a big factor get your water temperature down to 68 you'll do a lot better

[Chris Achtschin]

Hi Bert ,
This is a air cooled laser, is there a better way to cool?

[Keith Winter]

Hi Bert ,
This is a air cooled laser, is there a better way to cool?

Trotec recommends a conditioned room, I think it's a must if you ever have a warranty claim. 82 doesn't sound super hot but we keep our laser room at 74ish for reference. 9 years on a tube is a long time but not 100% a guarantee of failure. I'd try a cooled room and also check your alignment if it got off and is hitting the edge or something of your mirror that could be it, or dirty optics/lens.

Can you also describe the performance issue more that might help diagnosis?

[Chris Achtschin]

Thanks for the replays.
Performance issues are, for example, while lasering black painted 2.5 inch medals, 13 in the template, inside areas of the image starts to deteriorate as the temperature increases resulting in 85% or more of the image not lasering. Another description would be as the Temperature increases the power decreases.

[Keith Winter]

Could the metal be heating up?

[Chris Achtschin]

Not sure how to tell if the metal is heating up but I do get a similar negative effect , during hot times, when lasering rowmark type acrylic.
When hot, acrylic barely lasers to the subsurface and doesn't cut all the way through.
When the environment is cool, everything works fine.

[Bert Kemp]

You could get a point and shoot infra thermometer to check the metal shoot at start ,then during, and after .

[Keith Winter]

Maybe a photo would help?

I'm having a hard time imagining it as you are describing it "inside areas of the image starts to deteriorate as the temperature increases resulting in 85% or more of the image not lasering". Is the art is tighter in the middle? Also lasers move left to right so if the art was the same, it shouldn't change in the interior if all 4 sides are good unless the art is different in the middle. (I'm imagining a box as the medal and the "interior" being the middle point of that box). It's possible how it engraves may change as you progress further down the art file and the metal heats up, especially if the laser settings are overly high.

1. Were any of your mirrors, or the lense dirty?
2. Are you sure the settings are correct? Possibly the power is too high or PPI too high causing excessive heat / heating up the metal?
3. Can you post a photo of the entire template and design with the flaw you're seeing so we can see what is actually happening?

[Chris Achtschin]

Art is simply black and "nothing" Attachment is a bitmap but real image is a vector, no cutting just raster.
I do 13 of these at a time.
Optics are good clean.
I'm doing an experiment now, temp is 74.3 (Cool morning for once!).
I suspect there will be no issue

[Jerome Stanek]

Keith said lasers move left to right. You can not assume this as my laser moves right to left. My zero is the upper right corner.

[Chris Achtschin]

Just finished experiment with temp staying around 74. All OK
My zero is upper left

[Matt McCoy]

Keith said lasers move left to right. You can not assume this as my laser moves right to left. My zero is the upper right corner.

When engraving, where does it drop the first dot, left side of the image or right?

[Chris Achtschin]

starts at Right

[Tony Lenkic]

Chris,

Have looked in the operating manual for ambient operating room temperature for your laser.
Room temperature does effect electronics of the machine and the tube and may cause such results.

[Jerome Stanek]

mine is left side that's where it homes and starts

[Keith Winter]

Keith said lasers move left to right. You can not assume this as my laser moves right to left. My zero is the upper right corner.

True some co2 start in the right, left or right start regardless, it does not go in a circle or jump all over like a Fiber Galvo does. So it would not make sense for the middle of the substrate to be much hotter than any other edge. If it was a Fiber you can set it to engrave in circles so the middle would be hotter than the outside edge because the lines being engraved would be close to each other at the time of engraving.


Interesting it's working fine now Chris on a cooler day, sounds like you have your answer. 74 is coincidentally the same temp as we use in our laser room as I mentioned in my earlier post. No issues at that temp for us, never tried it hotter.

I would suspect air cooled machines like yours and mine might be more susceptible to room temperature than a water cooled machine that is constantly recycling the water around. I would think a clogged fan/broken fan on the laser could potentially cause issues too though, even on a cool day doing a heavy load, are those all clean?

[Ross Moshinsky]

I'd double check the alignment, open up the machine and clean out any filters and dust, and see if the problem goes away. 82* is warm but definitely should be within the realm of room temperature.

My honest guess is the laser tube needs to be serviced but it wouldn't surprise me if a filter or fan is the issue.

[Keith Colson]

Hi Chris

I had those exact same symptoms. Another symptom is the fans will hit full speed and stay there. A fan cooled machine should always be modulating the fan speed if it is "happy". During summer my laser would lose power about 30 minutes into a job. There are two things I have done to solve the issue.

1) Clean or replace the filters for the fans.
2) Run all jobs at 80% power. This stopped my laser getting to that point where it was too hot.

I have followed this strategy for about a year. My results are now very consistent. Before doing this my laser would lose about 15% power after 30 minutes or so.

Also check your nose cone is not on the edge of the beam. I was losing about 5% power there.

Cheers
Keith

[Chris Achtschin]

Thanks Keith,
Filters were the first thing I checked, they were dirty, after cleaning I did see some improvement.
All jobs at 80%, so you adjust speed for your final output?

[Keith Colson]

Hi Chris

Yes, that's all I did is slow the speed down "about" 20% to match the 80% power. I am willing to bet that the tubes will last much longer when not run at full power. When manufacturers set a 100% spec, that is the stress limit of that product. Running under that stress limit can only be good in my opinion. That spec is based on a new machine too.