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Water separator?
Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2020
by Don Teeter
Ours is a new machine newly installed by another employee but I'm completing bring-up. I just read in the (completely generic) laser machine manual about a water separator for the compressed air. Is this something I need to install? I'm thinking to halt all usage until this question is resolved. Thank you.
Re: Water separator?
Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2020
by Gene Uselman
Are you using the small pump that is normally supplied with lasers or a larger shop type compressor? If a larger compressor, you should have a regulator/dryer. It is not an immediate issue tho, in my opinion- but should be done.
Re: Water separator?
Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2020
by Don Teeter
We're using shop compressed air, just ran a line over to the new laser cutter. I want to know more how it was done but I can't reach anyone, so I will default to just seeing that it's done right. To me this means a) how to learn what pressure to regulate it at (the regulator in place has a broken dial) and b) how many hours' usage before the risk that moisture on the lens causes a problem.
Re: Water separator?
Posted: Sat Sep 05, 2020
by Jeffrey Aley
Hi Don,
Install a moisture trap if there isn't one in the line somewhere already. There's no spec for condensation on the lens - just keep it dry. The lens will heat up as the beam passes through it. So on the one hand, that should keep the lens dry, but on the other hand, warm glass + water = cracking.
There's also no spec for pressure. In general, you want airflow (CFM) not pressure (PSI), though these are obviously related. Maybe 30 - 50 PSI? The way the airflow affects performance is strongly affected by the design of the nozzle + lens combination which is installed. Russ has a number of videos about this. In summary, for best cutting performance, you want to push air down into the cut. This means a nozzle which ends physically close to the work (i.e. close to the focal length of the lens), and has a nozzle opening that is not too large in diameter.
Regards,
-Jeff Aley
P.S. Did you ever work for a large company in Folsom?
Re: Water separator?
Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2020
by Don Teeter
P.S. Did you ever work for a large company in Folsom?
Yes, I did.
Re: Water separator?
Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2020
by Pete Cyr