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Jim Benham
11-30-2016, 12:02 PM
Hey everyone. Thank you in advance for the help. I'm so happy to have access to a forum with so much knowledge.

I have an 8 month old Epilog Fusion 32 60w laser machine. i use it daily in my manufacturing business. The machine typically runs around 6-8 hours a day cutting acrylic. The acrylic is pretty much always .25"/6mm thick. The current settings I have on my machine are 100% power and 3% speed. Most of the time the parts cut all the way through, but every now and then I have some issues separating the parts. One thing that I have noticed is that the laser doesn't seem to fire at 100% around the corners only on a straight line. I'm importing the CAD file drawn in Autocad into Coreldraw so I'm wondering if this has anything to do with my laser not firing around corners at 100%. I've attached a video showing what I'm talking about. Can anyone give me any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong?

I have also attached a CDR file of what part you see in the video.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/di2ul97s9gjt8ov/IMG_1172.MOV?dl=0 link to video
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lddyrqay3vyvrlr/Sample%20Part.cdr?dl=0 link to .cdr file

Thanks!

Kev Williams
11-30-2016, 12:32 PM
Less power on the corners is on purpose. This is because the laser must slow down near corners to lessen the shock of the drive train suddenly changing directions. And as it slows down, it must lower the power proportionally. This also applies to cutting curves...

Problem is, you're going so slow that the laser doesn't really need to slow down and lower power, but it's doing it anyway. With metal lasers, all these speed/power changes are programmed into the controller, and obviously there's compromises. In your case, the corners aren't cutting enough on slow speeds.

My GCC does the opposite, it cuts the corners a bit more than the straights. But the difference is very slight, and 'overburn' never really happens. Anyway, the simple fix is to adjust to get all the cut the way you want.

3 years of full-time full-on cutting, you're laser IS probably getting a bit tired. I would make the necessary adjustments, and start saving money for a recharge :)

Are your mirrors and lens cleaned often? A little smudge can go a long way towards less power output...

Jim Benham
11-30-2016, 12:50 PM
Thanks Kev. The laser is only 8 months old, and we have only been running it that often for about 2 months. I went back and talked with my operator and reviewed the machine again and noticed that he has NEVER cleaned one of the mirrors in the machine. I asked why, and he showed me the manual how it says the mirror doesn't needed to be cleaned as often..... Well 8months of no cleaning is probably the issue haha. We cleaned it and now it seems to be working back at the 3% we were getting in the past.

I always wondered why the laser seemed to not be as powerful around corners, but now I know. Thanks!