Re: Laser recharging/replacement ?

From: Megsinet (tbone@megsinet.net)
Date: Sat Apr 17 1999 - 09:00:45 EEST


Simon-

 The recharges are usually referred to as "re-tubing". If you decide to go
with another laser manufacturer other than Coherent (3D sponsored), you have
to keep in mind that, if you have a maintenance contract on your SLA 250, 3D
field engineers will not touch the non-Coherent laser. You will be expected
to tune and maintain the laser by yourself, but for the most part, this is
quite simple. A supplier will usually provide a manual or offer technical
assistance over the phone.

 Re-tubing a laser usually costs between 60%-70% of the cost of the original
laser and is guaranteed from 50%-70% of the power spec at 2500-3000 hours.
You can usually negotiate these numbers, to a small degree, with a
supplier.

 Example: A new 40mw, 325nm HeCd laser for $16,000.00 will cost about
$11,000.00 for a re-tube. If the power drops below 28mw before 2500 hours
(70% power spec in this case), the supplier, in most cases, will send you a
swap laser with about 10-15 extra mw or if you are lucky, a new laser. I've
seen the latter happen a few times :)

 Other than Coherent, there are three manufacturers that I know of that make
lasers for SLA 250s: Omnichrome and Liconix (both of which are being bought
out by Melles Griot in the next few months) and a Japanese
manufacturer.....I don't have the name handy, I can find it for you if
needed. Incidentally, this Japanese manufacturer has been around for a long
time and had approached 3D Systems around 1993-94 asking to be their laser
supplier for the 250 systems. 3D Systems opted for Coherent.

Hope this helped,

Bill Ballmaier V.P.
Scimitar Prototyping Inc.
1529 Bourbon Parkway
Streamwood, IL 60107

Phone: 630-483-3875
Fax: 630-483-3876
EMail: bballmaier@sci-proto.com (active 5/3/99)

----- Original Message -----
From: Simon Slater <sslater@roushind.com>
To: <rp-ml@ltk.hut.fi>
Sent: Friday, April 16, 1999 9:31 AM
Subject: Laser recharging/replacement ?

Hello RPML,

Does anyone know or heard of Lasers for 3DSsytems SLA machines being
recharged and at what cost ?

What are the charges for replacement lasers on an SLA 250, because i have
been lead to believe that these vary according to type of maintenance
contract and number of machines owned ?

Can anyone shed any light on this subject or let me know the sort of costs
involved in your experiences ? If anyone one has any kind of detailed
analogies would it be possible for you to share these with me. Thankyou for
any help in advance !!

Regards
Simon Slater
RP Development Engineer

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/

For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 22:51:30 EEST