Re: RE: HeCd laser lifetimes ???

From: Markus Hitter (M.Hitter@fh-trier.de)
Date: Thu Sep 16 1999 - 22:34:31 EEST


On Don, 16. Sep 1999 18:17 Uhr, William LeBlanc
<mailto:leblanw@UMoncton.CA> wrote:
> Steve,
>
> Believe me I have tried pretty much everything, got the UPS & filter
> several years ago, tried leaving the laser ON, etc, etc .... Still
the
> same results, some good, some fair & some bad lasers. I guess that's
how
> the cookie crumbles.
>
> I would be curious to know the percentage of He/Cd lasers making it
at X
> # of hours.

Here are some experiences I made with the Omnichrome 74 on top of a
SLA250:

- The slits in the black top cover of the machine are too small for
effective laser cooling. Removing the long hood over the Laser
increases the laser power by about 20%. This is safe as there is a
second hood under it to protect your eyes from the laser beam.

- The window on top of the build chamber where the laser comes in and
the two laser sensors should be cleaned at least once a month. The
mirrors and lenses outside the build chamber are rarely dirty but the
glass inside becomes foggy in one month to decrease the laser power by
about 10%.

- Before detecting the cooling problem our laser dropped in 1600 hours
from 34mW to 21mW. Now it has 3112 hours an 19mW. Hm Hm Hm.

Regards,

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
 Markus Hitter http://www.fh-trier.de/~hitterm
 Dipl. Ing. Maschinenbau

 - CAD FlŠchenrŸckfŸhrung
 - Stereolithografie
 - Programmieren im CAD- und Maschinensteuerungsbereich

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