Amada Orion Superpak Desiccant Change 1

[RPosty]

did a 5000 hr filter change and was looking at the 1000 hour kit and the sticker price was well over $2000. that seems obscenely high for desiccant and some orings. Has anybody rebuilt the cartridges themselves? I noticed their are two types of desiccant in each stage, a beige and a white. having worked on avionic systems, i am very familiar with them. wear a respirator, dump old out and dispose as hazardous waste etc.

Does anyone know what grade/type of desiccant is in these cartridges?

"I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, 'cause they are stuck on me"

 

[LASERNINJA]

Sorry, Not really sure what is in there. I do know that on most machines, changing that out every 10,000 is excessive. As long as the filters are clean on the inlet side I wouldn't worry about it too much. There are a few after market places that sell the replacement kit. I know it won't be as cheep as doing it completely by yourself but much less than OEM price.

 

[RPosty]

Thanks LaserNinja, I'll probably do the Kit once and try to reverse engineer the old one, paper is still bright blue, so probably ok. Though I have noticed the farther the beam is from the resonator, the worse the cut quality on aluminum (skipping) even with a good alignment, but that could be the B optic too. Machine runs so much it's hard to get it to just play and see what is causing what. I want to try a low absorption optic for aluminum too. Well that and quality optics from quality mfg like Ophir and II-VI instead of the knockoff brands we been using just to rule out optic quality as what is causing our issues.

currently our machine is 10 years old with 42k hours on meter. turbo should have another 4000 hours til change. It runs ok at 3800 watts, at 4000 you see the power drop gradually to 3600 or so. We have a leak again (about 4 torr in 9 mins), I had to set prm 15241 from 200 to 220 to get it to come up without a Gas Pressure Control fault 4081. It would go to 225 instead of 200 during that sequence, so i changed it to 220 to see what happens. It still came up to 225 then settled at 220 without faulting. kind of weird, I expected it to go higher, maybe its the control.

even with these issues, its our most productive machine and I wish we had another one so we could retire the PRC's which have very old and worn tables.

"I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, 'cause they are stuck on me"

 

[LASERNINJA]

I can see there are a few different things going on. We should start a new post for each but cause we are old friends...

Pressure shooting too high. I have seen the bottle regulator do that before. The gauge might say 28psi but there may be more coming out. When the solenoid opens up there is such a rush of gas coming in that the control over shoots the target.

Leak. You really have to get that under control. It can cause the O.C. to get dirty and prefocus, cause power fluctuations, just a bunch of things that will make life difficult. You will have to forgive me cause I really don't use units when I am looking at a leak. Are you saying that 905 changes by 4 over 9 minutes? If it goes from 6 to 10, for example, that's not a big deal. 6 to 46.... not so good.

So, in the order of trouble shooting I would go like this...

First, get the laser nice and stable. Good mode, Good power, No leaks (or at least no big ones) a change in 905, 10 or less is okay. Not great, just okay. Next, double check the external alignment I have attached a couple of pictures. Notice how crisp and round the burn pattern is. 2-6 optics. While you are doing the alignment, inspect the bellows. 42k, may be showing some ware. Little corner holes are not that big of deal. Then, focus lens. Of course spots, but please also consider the aluminum dust that gets on the top side of the lens. I have discussed this before. Last, the beam purge. Its important, don't get me wrong, it just doesn't' cause that many issues unless its off or really really messed up. Keep in mind you can always plumb in nitrogen, in the name of science, and see if that makes a difference.

 

[LASERNINJA]

Apparently only one link per post.