Horizontal lines on raster engraving CO2 laser

[Pierre vennen]

Hey! I’m hoping for some help as I struggle with an Epilog co2 laser machine!
Fusion Pro / 60W

We are having some issues to engrave and cut evenly. First thought the mirror and bed where out of alignment, but we’ve realigned and leveled everything, lens and mirror cleaned.

We still can’t cut properly and the engraving seems weird too. Need to run the jobs slower than usual to get the same results too. Is the tube leaking? How could we test the power of the tube?

We also started to see some horizontal lines coming up on the engraving area ( see pictures attached )

The tube has been replaced 2 years ago and we are wondering if someone else had similar issues with it? Or if someone is able to help us out!

Thanks a lot!!!!

IMG_5067.jpgIMG_5070.jpgIMG_5073.jpg

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Welcome to this forum Pierre.

There can be several reasons for "banding" in your engraved raster graphics. If you scroll up to the top right of this forum, you will find a Search option. You can also use the Advanced Search to narrow down your search to just the engraving forums in SMC and search for the word "banding" and you will see all sorts of different causes.

[Miguel Pinho]

Hello Pierre

One of the causes for banding, mostly when engraving big continous images on granite, is just the laser losing power.

When that happens you have to increase the engraving speed and laser engraving power. You can test this if it works.

You can also check the laser power supply to see if it's working with the correct voltage.

By the way, i engrave with a synrad J48-2 25 wats laser and a Camtech machine.