Fanuc Resonator. Losing the beam. 2

[kach]

I will try to explain my problem as clearly as possible.
Until recently our LVD Orion 3015 Laser has been great. It is equipped with a Fanuc 2.5KW Resonator.
Now, when running a program at some point the beam will stop. The axis will continue to move and the program will continue to run but the beam will disable. (I cannot enable the beam again unless I shut down, then re-start the resonator.)
I have been on the phone with LVD but they say they are not sure what may cause this to occur.
I am really hoping that someone out there can possibly point me in the right direction.
If you need anything clarified feel free to ask.

Thank you kindly.

 

[LASERNINJA]

What I would be curious about is the laser sequence when you are in this situation.

If you press "system", Diagnostic, then 905 Number search, It will bring you to the tube pressure. A few lines down from that is the "laser sequence". The sequence numbers indicate laser's stage of the operation. Start up, shut down, stand by, ....

Check this out and let us know.

 

[Foostrap]

Could be your mirror contact switches. If one of the 3 mirror contacts goes off for a very short time, this could happen. There should be a message coming up on the screen, but the message goes away once the mirror contacts are good again. So if it is intermittent, you may not notice a message. But you should see it in the message history. Check your message history for 2015 messages (not the same as the alarm history).
Also visually look at your 3 mirror contact switches. Wiggle them and see if you can get the light to go off; if so, you may have a bad contact, or switch needs adjustment.

 

[kach]

Let me start by saying I am so happy that I stumbled upon this forum.

@Footstrap
I went through and tightened all of the mirror contact switches. I've run a few programs now without any interruption. Thank you kindly for the help.

@LASERNINJA
If I run into the problem again I will be sure to observe which sequence the laser is in. Thank you.

 

[kach]

Well, I spoke too soon.
Right after my last post I went to unload the laser and found that the beam was no longer enabled. The strange part is that the parts had finished cutting already. So the problem occurred after the fact.
Now I'm really confused.
The laser was in sequence 30.

 

[LASERNINJA]

Wow. Very interesting.

Sequence 30 means that the laser is up and ready for action. That is the "normal" operating sequence. I hate to say it but it sounds like a machine side problem, not with the Fanuc laser part of it.

This troubles me because I am not and expert on the LVD part of your machine. The good news is that Foostrap is (I'm pretty sure).

This is what I make of it. The laser is up and ready to cut, the machine sends signals to open the shutter and command the power you are asking for etc.... These signals are not making it to where they need to go or, they are not being generated.

What is strange is that shutting the machine down and restarting reestablishes the communication.

I am not sure but it seems like your shutter enable switch has a loose wire. I am not sure if your machine has this feature but it one of the only things that can change with out making an alarm. Along the same lines, Amada machines have a switch that prevents the beam from coming out if the head is higher than 1" from the zero point of the z axis. Does your machine have anything like this?

 

[Foostrap]

Like Laserninja said, if the resonator is at sequence 30, there is nothing wrong there. The problem must be on the machine side (PLC related), not enabling the shutter signal. I would definitely look again at the 3 prox switches for the mirror blocks (input X8.7). Eventually replace or swap the switches.

 

[kach]

Your help is so appreciated. It looks like one of those switches are defective. Got one on order.

Again, you guys rock. Thanks for all the insight.