Amada FLCAJ lens life

[Merrill101]

Last year my company bought a new Fiber laser from Amada. I have spent my entire life running CO2 lasers. We are approaching 1500 beam on hours and I wanted some feedback on the lense life compared to the CO2. Both the 190mm and the 220mm have been replaced once. The 220 probably could have gone a bit longer but we wanted to get it sent to IIVI before the end of the year.

When running the Trumpf 6kw CO2 we would replace the lens every 500-750 hours. Running 1/2" or better 75% of the time. Here on the Amada 4kw Fiber we keep it under 11 ga for the most part and cut with nitrogen. Does this being a Fiber laser have anything to do with the increased lens life? Is it the material we are cutting?

I would love any information you have on the differences between CO2 and Fiber.

 

[lasermate]

You definately get a longer life out of fiber lenses than CO2. The protective window helps protect the lens and materials of fused silica verses the Zinc Selinde also extend the lens life.

 

[Foostrap]

As lasermate indicated, the protection window takes the hit and protects the cutting lens from gas pressure (mechanical stress) and material splatter. The fiber cutting heads are also better sealed as everything is much more sensitive to dust than CO2. As a result, lens life is extended (I've heard people getting 6000+ hours out of the cutting lens). However you do need to replace the protection window more often.