Mike Lysov
11-16-2016, 9:45 PM
Hi guys,
It has been a long time since I posted on this forum. I was busy with relocation(done two in the last year), moving house and business from Melbourne to Brisbane first and then again moving both within Brisbane. Now it is all settled and I am glad to see you all again.
What is bad is that my LaserPro Spirit GX has stopped working. It was loosing power during long over 15-20 minutes jobs in the last 2-3 years but at least it was firing all the time. We measured output of the laser tube a year ago and it shows almost 99% of it is initial power. The laser was purchased brand new 7 years ago and I do not think I have used it from more than 20000-4000 hours.
I was thinking about some problem with overheating(even though the machine never shown any warnings about it with its inbuilt sensor for it). Then I made sure all cables are sitting tight. I found only one problem that could cause power weakness and it was a mirror for a red laser that somehow got in a path of the main beam and got cracked. I removed the mirror and hoped it would help but it did not. Actually it helped a bit making it possible to run jobs a bit longer with a higher speed as a start.
And just three days ago when I was doing a long job I noticed that my laser started skipping during cutting. I could see the beam on and off and on again during the cut. I tried to repeat the same job and it started doing the same but in slightly different places on a laser bed. I called a tech guy from a laser supplier and official distributor for CGI in Australia and he asked me to measure the laser output power before he could suggest something or even com to diagnose the problem. I could not finish checking it for two reasons. I have a huge gemtec power meter with a big probe head and I could not align the center of the probe with the beam but that was just a minor one. The major problem was that the laser was firing only for a few seconds(2-4 sec tops) and was switching off. When the tech guys came to check it the beam was not firing at all. The guy did some testing and advised that he is not sure what's wrong as LEDs on the machine and the RF unit were on as it would happen if the beam was firing. He has also tested the RF unit but he could not find anything wrong. His conclusion has been that it may be the tube, may be the RF unit or even both. He has explained how much it would cost me to repair it with Synrad and it made me cry. Especially when you do not know whether it is the tube or the RF unit.
Is there any way to isolate the problem and tell what is exactly out of order the tube or the RF unit? I do not believe they both have broken at the same time.
Even if I go with Photovac company sending them both parts for testing can cost me a few thousands in USD(in AUD it will be even 50% more) and not to mention shipping cost which will be $1200
I understand that if they are both broken there is nothing I can do apart from paying for fixing both. However it may happen that the tech guy couldn't isolate the problem.. he was in rush going to another client after me.. It may be just one of them that needs to be repaired and it even may be one of the cables used to connect the tube with the RF unit.
Any help and advise would be highly appreciated.
It has been a long time since I posted on this forum. I was busy with relocation(done two in the last year), moving house and business from Melbourne to Brisbane first and then again moving both within Brisbane. Now it is all settled and I am glad to see you all again.
What is bad is that my LaserPro Spirit GX has stopped working. It was loosing power during long over 15-20 minutes jobs in the last 2-3 years but at least it was firing all the time. We measured output of the laser tube a year ago and it shows almost 99% of it is initial power. The laser was purchased brand new 7 years ago and I do not think I have used it from more than 20000-4000 hours.
I was thinking about some problem with overheating(even though the machine never shown any warnings about it with its inbuilt sensor for it). Then I made sure all cables are sitting tight. I found only one problem that could cause power weakness and it was a mirror for a red laser that somehow got in a path of the main beam and got cracked. I removed the mirror and hoped it would help but it did not. Actually it helped a bit making it possible to run jobs a bit longer with a higher speed as a start.
And just three days ago when I was doing a long job I noticed that my laser started skipping during cutting. I could see the beam on and off and on again during the cut. I tried to repeat the same job and it started doing the same but in slightly different places on a laser bed. I called a tech guy from a laser supplier and official distributor for CGI in Australia and he asked me to measure the laser output power before he could suggest something or even com to diagnose the problem. I could not finish checking it for two reasons. I have a huge gemtec power meter with a big probe head and I could not align the center of the probe with the beam but that was just a minor one. The major problem was that the laser was firing only for a few seconds(2-4 sec tops) and was switching off. When the tech guys came to check it the beam was not firing at all. The guy did some testing and advised that he is not sure what's wrong as LEDs on the machine and the RF unit were on as it would happen if the beam was firing. He has also tested the RF unit but he could not find anything wrong. His conclusion has been that it may be the tube, may be the RF unit or even both. He has explained how much it would cost me to repair it with Synrad and it made me cry. Especially when you do not know whether it is the tube or the RF unit.
Is there any way to isolate the problem and tell what is exactly out of order the tube or the RF unit? I do not believe they both have broken at the same time.
Even if I go with Photovac company sending them both parts for testing can cost me a few thousands in USD(in AUD it will be even 50% more) and not to mention shipping cost which will be $1200
I understand that if they are both broken there is nothing I can do apart from paying for fixing both. However it may happen that the tech guy couldn't isolate the problem.. he was in rush going to another client after me.. It may be just one of them that needs to be repaired and it even may be one of the cables used to connect the tube with the RF unit.
Any help and advise would be highly appreciated.