Our small fab shop has been thinking about getting a newer laser for awhile. To give you an idea of our size we only have three to four guys on the floor so anything new or a couple of years old is not ideal. The 1500 watt mazak I run is still cutting quite well but it is twenty-four years old...
This is just a curious question I have. Is the edge quality better on a newer laser compared to an old one? For example, is a well tuned resonator from the late eighties going to produce a cut as nice as a good resonator from lets say the early 2000's, or are they one in the same? Any comments...
I recently looked at a mazak mark II. It has a 1500 watt Panasonic resonator with 36,000 hours on it. I am told the blower is original , my concern is that it might fail soon. Does anyone know anything about newer style blowers? How many hours before they need to be serviced or replaced? How...
I recently started clean cutting with our old Mazak that has a 1500 watt PRC resonator. I have been cutting only 14ga. and thinner so far but with mixed results. We do a lot of food grade work so we have always cut our stainless with pvc on both sides (when using oxygen). As of right now I can...
Does anyone have any experience with these lenses? I have one on my old mazak and am wondering if they ever become stressed or dirty enough that it would effect cutting
I am curious if there are any specific signs a output coupler is going bad or needs replacement. I am quite sure the one i have in use now is at least five years old and could probably be changed.
The machine is an old 1500 watt mazak laser path. Recently when cutting .25 mild steel I encounter problems piercing. The machine pierces through just fine within the time designated but when it switches over to cutting power the material blows out so bad that any small holes are out of the...
I am looking to find some indium wire for our lens assembly. We have purchased some in the past but those records are long gone and the rep from our gas provider has not come up with anything promising. Is there anything that can be used instead of indium?
A customer wants our shop to cut some small parts out of .003" brass. I have no clue where to start with power settings and feed rate, etc. I am also curious if brass is reflective like copper. Laser power is 1500 watts, any ideas or warnings would be helpful.
I run a 20 year old Mazak with flying optics, I recently noticed multiple ridges on a circle I cut. The ridges were on both sides of the Y axis on a 5 inch circle cutting at 175 inches per minute. The weird thing is it can cut a much smaller circle at that speed with no visible ridges. I keep...
I am looking to replace the regulators for my assist gas system, so the shop can clean cut stainless steel. The current SMC regulators only push out a maximum of 8 bars and i would like to see 20 bars. I can't find anything from SMC besides what I already have and other internet sites offer no...
I have recently switched to 2-6 focusing lenses due to cost. The first lens was troublesome to begin with. The second ran great until it got dirty. The third was good for two days, then suddenly it started acting up. No spots or apparent stress, put back in old dirty lens and it out preformed...
Does anyone ever cut stainless steel shim stock? I frequently cut .003 to .010 and use 18 ga. crs for support. This works well but the shims don't always peel off so well. I am curious to know any other methods for cutting this delicate material.
