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Thread: New to forum. Some fiber laser questions

  1. #1

    New to forum. Some fiber laser questions

    Hello everyone,
    i have bought a new fiber laser engraving machine. It is a machine i bought from hong kong/china.

    I have a couple of questions regarding the machine. Any help or response will be greatly appreciated.
    The machine states that it can be used for 100,000 hours. Does this literally mean that the laser can run for that amout of time before the laser burns out? My machine has power ranging from 0-100 and i usually use the 50power to75 power. Will running the laser on higher power burn out the machine much quicker?

    Also are there any specific maintainance or tips anyone can advise in using the machine so it doesnt get broken?
    I have not yet opened up the machine for maintainance because it is new. There are no bulbs or laser lamps inside am i correct? And if the 100,000 finishes the machine cannot be used anymore?

    I have bought a YAG machine before and only after two years it broke down. I bought different lamps from my supplier and tried many times but all the replacement lamps i tried did not work. Also i checked all parts of the yag machineand even checked the power supply and replaced the mother board and it still did not work. I ended up buying a new fiber laser machine.

    I am worried that the same may happen to my fiber laser if we do large batches to engrave and i dont want the same to happen to it like what happened to my yag laser.

    Any help will be appreciated. Thank you

    Adolf atienza
    engraver from asia

  2. #2
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    Your laser MIGHT last 100'000 hours, it might not, it has many components and if any one of these fails so will the laser, there is nothing you can do to improve this situation, its just luck of the draw. Keep it clean, dont let the airways get blocked and keep you fingers crossed ! Running it at higher powers may have an effect on its overall life but again you cant gauge it so run it at the power you need to do the job and dont worry about it. Try not to abuse it moving it around, dont ever take it apart, there is NOTHING you can maintain on it. IF it makes it 100'000 then there is no reason for it just to die, it may keep working for many more hours but eventually the pump diodes will wear out, think of it like a car, you might have a car that does 200'000 miles with no brake downs but it might only get to 10'000 and need major work. These chinese fiber lasers are not bad but the main problem is the total lack of support, the simplest thing could put it out of action. On you YAG did the lamp light ? If you dont know how they work you cant fix them, ive fixed hundreds of them so it doesnt phase me but it took many years of learning and training.
    L Squared Lasers UK
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    1 x Electrox Scorpion 40 watt Fibre
    1 x Epilog EXT36 75 watt.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Adolf Atienza View Post
    The machine states that it can be used for 100,000 hours. Does this literally mean that the laser can run for that amout of time before the laser burns out? My machine has power ranging from 0-100 and i usually use the 50power to75 power. Will running the laser on higher power burn out the machine much quicker?
    Luckily, Adolf, the fiber and YAG machines operate on different principles (at least from an exciter standpoint). While the YAG uses flashlamps that need to be replaced every few thousand hours, the fiber machine you just purchased uses a solid-state light source (think LEDs, but it's a solid-state laser, I'll just call them LEDs for simplicity). The 100k hours is not a hard and fast rule... the hours stated should be the amount of time you can run the light source before output drops to 70% of the original power (LEDs degrade lightly with use). There are some heavy caveats to that, however. This time assumes the LED is kept within a very specific temperature range... as it creeps higher than that range, lifetime is reduced. For better or worse, you really have little to no control over that part of the equation, so don't worry about it. The second caveat is this is a Chinese system, and the Chinese are not known for high levels of quality control... the LED could be a poor performer (bad die), or they could be overestimating the overall quality of their LEDs. Running at higher powers means a greater average LED temp... if they designed the cooling system well, there is no problem... if they didn't do a good job, the die will get warmer than spec and lifetime will be reduced.

    Quote Originally Posted by Adolf Atienza View Post
    Also are there any specific maintainance or tips anyone can advise in using the machine so it doesnt get broken?
    I have not yet opened up the machine for maintainance because it is new. There are no bulbs or laser lamps inside am i correct? And if the 100,000 finishes the machine cannot be used anymore?
    There will be no user-serviceable parts inside of the laser itself. Even a tiny tiny tiny misalignment of the fiber can drastically reduce power output, so stay out of there. If it dies, send it to someone to be repaired.

    Hope that helps...
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  4. #4
    Thank u mat and dan. The info you have provided are really helpful. I just try to not overwork my laser so it does not break down again. I am planning to do large quantities ( example 1000 pieces running for about 2 minutes each time) is there a reccomended time like to let my laser rest? For example rest it for 5 to 10 minutes every 50 or 100 pieces?

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by matthew knott View Post
    Your laser MIGHT last 100'000 hours, it might not, it has many components and if any one of these fails so will the laser, there is nothing you can do to improve this situation, its just luck of the draw. Keep it clean, dont let the airways get blocked and keep you fingers crossed ! Running it at higher powers may have an effect on its overall life but again you cant gauge it so run it at the power you need to do the job and dont worry about it. Try not to abuse it moving it around, dont ever take it apart, there is NOTHING you can maintain on it. IF it makes it 100'000 then there is no reason for it just to die, it may keep working for many more hours but eventually the pump diodes will wear out, think of it like a car, you might have a car that does 200'000 miles with no brake downs but it might only get to 10'000 and need major work. These chinese fiber lasers are not bad but the main problem is the total lack of support, the simplest thing could put it out of action. On you YAG did the lamp light ? If you dont know how they work you cant fix them, ive fixed hundreds of them so it doesnt phase me but it took many years of learning and training.
    Hi matt . Yes i believe china does have very bad support! Depends on the company too. But the company i got the yag laser from was terrible. It tooks weeks/ months to get the spare parts ( only to find out the replacements didnt work). And not to mention the language barriers.

  6. #6
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    Hi Adolf, there is no recommended ratio of works vs rest, keeping the room you work in cool ( air condition in summer) can only help with the life of the laser, just run it. If your doing that much work with the laser then it should pay for its self quickly if you have your pricing right. Galvo yag and fibre machines are much more complex than the simple Chinese co2 lasers, these are easy to fix with a bit of common sense and spares are cheap so you can just change parts to find faults, this is not the case on Fibers. Out of interest how much did the machine cost it total including shipping and tax?

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by matthew knott View Post
    Hi Adolf, there is no recommended ratio of works vs rest, keeping the room you work in cool ( air condition in summer) can only help with the life of the laser, just run it. If your doing that much work with the laser then it should pay for its self quickly if you have your pricing right. Galvo yag and fibre machines are much more complex than the simple Chinese co2 lasers, these are easy to fix with a bit of common sense and spares are cheap so you can just change parts to find faults, this is not the case on Fibers. Out of interest how much did the machine cost it total including shipping and tax?
    Thanks for the advice matt! I appreciate it. I havent actually got the order yet. But that is myfirst prospective client and we are doing testing n prototyping his samples. The machine is around usd15,000-20,000 with the shipping and tax. You think its a good price matt?
    whats your recommended pricing when doing engraving?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
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    Shefford, United Kingdom
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    Price sounds fair to me, what country are you in? I think the price varies with country! I can't really help with pricing as I don't know what's envolved! Work out how long it will take and start from there
    Matt
    L Squared Lasers UK
    2 x Halo Lasers 20 watt fiber
    1 x Halo CO2 Galvo System
    1 x Shenhui 1512 80 watt
    3 x Electrox D40
    3 x electrox Scriba 2
    1 x Electrox Scorpion 40 watt Fibre
    1 x Epilog EXT36 75 watt.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by matthew knott View Post
    Price sounds fair to me, what country are you in? I think the price varies with country! I can't really help with pricing as I don't know what's envolved! Work out how long it will take and start from there
    Matt
    Hi matt sorry for the late reply. Im from the philippines. I just checked around the forum and looked at their prices here
    yes and also im testing out the running times and apply that to my costing as well. Thanks for all ur help matt

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