How to test a laser is brand new or refurbished

[Eugene han]

The laser dropped more than 1/3 of power. It is a brand new system. When the dealer came to set up for the first time. The motor stops working. We changed a new motor 3 days later. However, the laser power is less than manufacture claimed power. The dealer tested and found the mirror absorbs over 3 W of laser energy. There is a bit high laser power changs also. The laser was tested at the company and the laser software showed over 3 hours. I almost did not use it since the new mirror did not come and I am waiting for the power meter for testing. The total hours are about 14 hours yesterday as checked by the dealer. Except the 3 hours at the company, almost all the time was used by the dealer and me for setup (3 times, 2 days longer problem fixing plus yesterday's short testing). The dealer agreed to change a brand new laser tube and will be send in one or two days as he told me normally. There are still some banding. It stops working during the job. By the way the power supply is a bit less than the claimed power output. There is few info from the maker on testing the system.
How can you test the laser tube is brand new instead of a refurbished one. Or which kinds of documentation one need ask so that one can be sure the laser tube is new. The current laser tube tested by the laser maker some time is less than the system maker claimed power output.
The laser life can change. We must face it. To know a way to show it is a new tube will benefit everyone. Any response is appreciated.

Eugene

[Joe Pelonio]

I doubt there's any way to tell if it was new or refurbished, unless marked as such. Testing should not show any differences. I am on my 3rd tube and all have had a manufacture date on them, but that doesn't prove whether it was new or refurbished on that date, and I don't really think it makes any difference since there are no moving parts to wear out.

I also know from experience that the rated wattage can vary. My latest tube is obviously more powerful than the first two, I had to adjust all of my usual settings after I put it in. Also, was told by my manufacturer that it could vary from the stated wattage by a few watts either up or down.

Three hours seems reasonable for manufacturer testing on a laser before shipping.

[Rob Bosworth]

Eugene, what laser system are you talking about?

Most manufacture's do not mark a refurbished tube in any way. The laser will usually only have the manufacture date.

I have never run into a laser manufacture or systems manufacture that will sell a system with a laser outputting less than the advertized output. It might show up in a weakend state, but it should not leave the factory with less than advertized power output. That being said, we sell machines with many differnt lasers on them. When we are testing a system, we make sure that the laser is outputting more than the stated power. Matter of fact, when we refurb a machine that has a rated output power of 25 watts, we replace the tube if it is oputputting less than 27 watts. It is usually easier to change it here, than trying to get someone to do it in the field.

I am not going to even touch the 3 watts of absorbtion in one of your corner mirrors. Corner mirrors should reflect more than 98% of the energy. Not only will eat up the output power of the laser, it changes the pointing stability of the optic as it heats up. And the more it heats up, the more energy it absorbs. It gets to be a vicious cycle.

[Richard Rumancik]

By the way the power supply is a bit less than the claimed power output.

How can you test the laser tube is brand new instead of a refurbished one.
Eugene


Eugene

What do you mean when you say the power supply is a bit less than the claimed power output? Do you mean the rated output wattage is less? If so, it might not be a concern (provided that they are not running close to the maximum current draw of the laser tube.) Power supplies are not manufactured in every possible wattage, so the designer picks something close with some margin to spare. Maybe they changed their supplier.

As far as new or used: If a laser system is brand new, the serial number or date code should probably be fairly recent. Certainly not more than a year - otherwise I'd ask where it has been for the last year. But that doesn't prove it was never repaired. If the date of manufacture is not obvious from the nameplate on the laser tube, a call to the service dept of the laser manufacturer with the serial number should give you the needed date info. I can't think of a way to "test" the laser to tell if it is new or used.

[Mike Mackenzie]

I can tell you that all ULS tubes are labeled to show weather it has been re processed.

Any ULS tube that has RP on the serial # tag states that it has been re-processed. and it has a date as well.

[Eugene han]

The dealer and I tested the power of the laser after the training day (the first day we start set up the system) which is 3 days later. We tested the DC output of the power supply and found that it is a bit lower than the claimed output. There are 2 power supplies, one is a bit larger than the claimed output and one is lower than the claimed output. There is only one cable input from the AC so it has little relation with the AC change since at the same time one is larger and another is lower. I understand that the power changes in different location, we tested at the same spot so the power change is not location related.
We found that cutting is too slow, so the power might not is what the claimed power. I am thinking of why it loose about 1/3 of the power. The dealer told me that there are 3 RF circuits which are inside the laser tube. To the CPU board the voltage seems OK as told by the dealer.
The firmware were updated 2 times by the dealer to try to solve some issues.
I have not start using it and want to know a simple way to show the laser tube is a brand new one.
Thank you for the responses.

Eugene

[Eugene han]

We have the test from the laser maker which shows the output is sometimes lower than the claimed output from the system maker. But is higher than the claimed output from the laser maker since their claimed outputs are not the same. The laser maker claim a lower laser output which shows the testing result done by the laser maker is higher. Hopes it clears some confusion. I am not blaming another maker. I understand that something can be wrong. It might just I am not lucky.

[Shannon Burkitt]

What brand are you working with?

[Eugene han]

Hi, Shannon, Sorry for not mentioning the laser maker since I posted previous in this forum. It is from EUROPE. The new laser tube has come to the dealer and the dealer will come next week to install it.
My problems is the laser tube tested by the laser maker obtained from the dealer some time is lower than the claimed power. The mirror eats over 3 W most of the time. The cutting speed was too slow. It lost over 1/3 of its power. I have found that by simply putting some value and move the laser from left to right or from right to left. The display changes somehow almost 1 mm. X is minor, however Y value changes a lot. The Y motor was changed while it was installed. I am not sure whether or not the software can adjust like other makers have some scale factor so one can play with.
The firmware was updated 2 times, however, the 3d mode still seems not working. I am talking about the layer mode. I have not tried the relief mode.
Eugene