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Ben Levesque
10-15-2006, 10:49 AM
I have verified this in the operating manual, and have not found anything on the subject.

How long can the machine be close (shutdown) after a job, I mean the laser have to be cooled ? right ? Can it be close right away when a job is done?

Or maybe I’m comparing this to a projector and I’m thinking “lamp protection from the heat”.

Thanks


Ben

Dave Jones
10-15-2006, 11:39 AM
There's probably no defined amount of time. It would depend on what type of cutting/engraving you were just doing and for how long. The laser gets hot if it is running for a while. Not so hot if just running for a few seconds.

I tend to leave mine on for a couple of minutes even when I was doing a small job, and I let it sit on for several more if I was doing a long vectoring job at high power.

If I'm going to do another laser job in the next 1/2 hour or so, I don't shut it off in between. Electronics wear out more during power cycling than they do when on and doing nothing.

But I may be more cautious than I need to be.

Dave Fifield
10-15-2006, 6:18 PM
I leave my exhaust fan on for a few minutes after turning off my Epilog Mini 24, mainly to ensure all the smell is removed from the room. The exhaust air flows over the laser tube's cooling fins, so these few minutes also cool the laser down nicely.

However, knowing what I do about electronics (31 years in the industry :eek: ), the cooling fins on the laser tube are sufficient to prevent any laser tube heat damage even if you just turned everything off abruptly after finishing many hours of lasering.

Cheers,
:Dave F.

Dave Jones
10-15-2006, 9:19 PM
I have a mini-24 also. Unless they changed the design, the exhaust air does not flow over the laser fins. On my Mini-24 there are 4 fans above the laser fins with air drawn in through vent holes in the back of the machine. The exhaust air flows in a chamber that is seperate from where the laser is.

Dave Fifield
10-16-2006, 2:52 PM
Duh on me. You're right Dave. I just looked at mine more carefully - why would you want all the sticky smoke/resin flowing over the laser heatsink anyway? (rhetorical question - you wouldn't....).

I dug into the power numbers a little more too. A typical 35W CO2 laser needs 10KV at about 20mA to run, making it's efficiency about 17.5%. 200W of heat is generated. The heatsinks on a 35W laser are more than adequate to deal with this amount of heat. So, that would seem to make it just fine to turn off the laser directly at the end of a session and simply forget about it.

:Dave F.

Joe Pelonio
10-16-2006, 5:13 PM
On my Epilog 45 watt Legend my exhaust fan draws fresh air from right in front of the tube to cool it while it's still clean. I still always let the fan run a minute or two after stopping any job, and don't turn off the laser until 4-5pm depending on whether there's time to start another run before closing and going home. Also, in order to save the power switch (those do wear out) I only use the switch on the power regulator which the laser is plugged into.