laser tube lifespan question

[Rodne Gold]

Your optics and alignment will make a significant difference , but you would soon see if the mirrors or lens is damaged enough to make you have to cut at effectively 1/2 the speed you were doing so when new. Alignment will show by cutting a thickish piece of acrylic (8mm) and looking at the cut edges , if they slope alignment is probably out , but that too should not make the laser work at 1/2 the speed. If the laser is cutting at one point and not thru at another , most likely alignment too.
We take a piece of exact 3mm thickness acrylic and cut it at the usual power/speed at all locations on the table , if it doesn't cut thru at a corner etc , we then know alignment is probably out , if it does not cut thru at all points , even after optics are cleaned , we then know its a tube issue..we do this about once or twice a month on all our lasers.

[Bill Cunningham]

My first tube lasted 4 years, but I may have shortened it's life by sucking the vent air through it from another room/floor using a metalized plastic 4" vent line. The inside liner collapsed and the laser shut down once due to over heating, although it may have been running for a while in a over heated mode. When I installed the new tube, and one mirror, I moved the blower to the machine and installed metal vent lines in a short route to the outside. The current tube has lasted 6 years now and shows no sign of slowing down. I'm running on the same lens and encoder strip. However besides the tube, I have burned out two x-motors. and a lcd display modual. I keep a spare lens,encoder strip and x-motor, on hand just in case. Epilog is now selling direct into Canada (at U.S. Prices they say!) and The old dealer was bought out by Trotec. A new, bigger machine will be in the works soon, just have to decide which one.