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Thread: Triumph 50w Fiber Marking Laser: Losing power after about a year.

  1. #1

    Triumph 50w Fiber Marking Laser: Losing power after about a year.

    Picked up at 50w Triumph fiber laser. Has worked wonders for the business, but in the last 3 months or so it seems to have lost some of it's juice. We first noticed that it would seem to engrave unevenly when doing a pass right-to-left. It would engrave lightly on the right, and get better as it moved left. We ended up moving the laser head closer to the work piece (Work piece is flat). This seemed to even it out. We've had to do this about 3 times now, and each time we've lost considerable power overall. It's beginning to show signs of uneven etching again. This uneven etching across the X axis seems to be the biggest red flag.

    Since it's peak season we got a 2nd 50w Triumph. Exact model. That machine is etching perfectly, and you can really tell the difference. I'd say we've lost nearly half the power on the old one vs. the new.

    Things we've looked at:
    Lens is clean. We swapped lenses between the 2 and the new laser cuts just as well and the old laser cuts just as bad.
    Galvo mirrors look very very clean. I could clean them, though they look pretty delicate up there.
    I do not know how to check the alignment of the laser the way you can with a gantry machine. Any tips on this?

    I'm very well versed in X Y Gantry lasers, so this galvo laser is new territory. What else should I be looking at? Laser has around 200 firing hours on it, maybe 300 tops.

  2. #2
    Power supply hopefully, if not laser source. Is the source still under warranty?
    355 - 10400 : )

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Neville Stewart View Post
    Power supply hopefully, if not laser source. Is the source still under warranty?

    I think so, if it's truly a 2 year warranty, which the new one is.

    What is the power supply in these? I saw the 24V power supply in there, but I think that just takes the 110V and gets it to 24V DC. That seems to be working fine

  4. #4
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    It sounds like it is an issue with the head not being parallel to the table. Simple level on top of the table should be the same as the top of the head. I can't see anything else that would be an issue left to right.....
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  5. #5
    level is easy to test, put a level on top of the scan head, and see if the table's level matches--

    I have two Triumph machines, their warranty is good--

    I'm assuming you have a 'tower' model like this-?
    tower type.jpg
    if so, and there's NOT a 'warranty void if removed' type sticker on it someplace, remove the blue top cap on the horizontal arm the scanhead is attached to--
    Once inside, you'll find the 'snout' at the end of the laser's optic cable, and that it's clamped in place--
    Make sure it's not loose--

    If you look closely, the clamp *should* have some small set screws, to tweak the azimuth of the snout- more on this later...

    As to the mirrors you checked, there may be another one: IF your red LED pointer is mounted vertically in,
    or in front of, the snout clamp like this one:
    LEDpointer.jpg
    Then, it's possible this may be part of the problem, because, the LED points downward at a 45° 'transparent' (to the fiber beam) mirror, then to the galvo mirrors... Once I found a burnt dead bug in the tube, and I also found a bug welded to the lens- If you look close at my pic above, you'll see it's wide open to tiny critters from the end of the laser snout, thru the LED holder, and the space between the holder and the front of the case- NOT sure if yours will be open, but if so, could be you have a dead bug glued to the LED mirror or blocking the beam somewhere before the galvo mirrors...

    to do a good check, unplug the wires to the scanhead, and remove it-- have fun with getting at those allen screws - you want to be able to look down the pipe from the lens end, with a flashlight, to look for something in the way...

    If you find no obstructions obvious obstructions, then, you could pull the LED out and check it directly, AND you could also put the scanhead back on and see if it engraves better without the LED-
    FAIR WARNING, if you TOUCH the LED just more than a little bit, it WILL BE out of adjustment in relation to your saved settings, and it'll need to be re-aligned to the laser's output- again... Me, I'm okay with doing that -- ALSO, note the orientation of the LED as it sits in the pocket, it's a good idea to mark the LED and the pocket so you get it back in the same position as close as you can. I've found many LED pointers produce a hot-dog shaped beam, that doesn't necessarily come 'straight out' of it's housing. My Triumph's LED would point WAY different when rotated in the pocket only a tiny bit...

    Anyway

    In the scanhead you'll find there's about a 3/8" diameter 'tube' that the laser beam has to pass thru to hit the mirrors. There's not a lot of room for error because the beam is about 1/4" wide!

    Now, go find, or buy, a cheap 'magic eraser', the cheaper the better. The reason is, I found out just a few weeks ago that a fiber's the incident beam will melt a perfect-circle spot in a magic eraser. Take some scissors and cut a small square off, then gently stuff it into the hole, using a drink straw or eraser-end of a pencil, or whatever, to 'smooth' the sponge as much and as flat as possible. Push it down the tube until it's almost ready to come out on the mirrors side. (With the lens removed, you can just finish pushing it out when you're done...)

    Next, to test the power needed... go into ezcad, and draw about a 1" square. Set the power to ZERO, speed at 1500. Then cover the hole where the scanhead goes with a whole magic eraser- you can just hold it in place with your hands-- then run the outline at zero power... IF nothing shows up on the eraser, increase power in 10% increments till it does. If it's melting too badly, reduce the size of the box and double the speed-- you just want to get it where it creates a round dimple about half as deep as the diameter. When you get it right, put the scanhead back on, level it, then run it again...

    Remove the scanhead and check if the circle it made is a full circle, and if it's centered well... When I checked mine, it was low and right, and the bottom-right part of the beam WAS hitting the tube-! (the reason I checked was, I too was noticing a power loss)

    IF the beam isn't good and centered, then try realigning it at the clamp... otherwise, if the beam's centered and no bugs or spider webs are in the way, then-- probably time to call Triumph
    Last edited by Kev Williams; 11-17-2021 at 3:48 PM.
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