LaserIdiot
Industrial
Hello. I'm green to laser cutting. The place I work has had a major loss, our laser operator of 20 years has passed away. And with him went all the knowledge of running the machine. I am fairly new to this company and have been tasked with the responsibility of running the laser, due to my waterjet experience. I have all the manuals for the laser and NC but I know little of the machine itself.
My problems are varied.
1. 1/4" Mild steel is cutting fine in almost every direction. The x axis moving to zero is rough, lots of gouging, no dross and proper dimensions.. but the cut looks terrible. The rest of the sides look perfect. I have conducted lead tests and the laser appears to be passing through the nozzle dead center. I assisted our late operator in a lens and mirror cleaning two weeks ago, so I am familiar with the process of aligning the mirrors 1 through 6. Could I be slightly out of alignment on my 5 and 6 mirror? Or could it be the lens saver is dirty.
2. We run oxygen and nitrogen fine, they are regulated from our bulk packs. But our air compressor is old and oily. We've redundancy installed to dry the air and clean oil from the lines, but there doesn't seem to be any regulation when the assist air enters the machine for air cutting. I attempted some 20 gauge 304 Brush Stainless Steel today and I kept getting low assist pressure, then high assist pressure, then low again, then high. I had to continuously adjust the shutoff nozzle closed or open slightly to reproduce what a regulator would.. My question is.. is this normal? Should 120psi be able to me regulated internally by the laser cutter itself? Is there a setting I'm missing..
3. Not all that important. but a concern none the less.. The operator I'm attempting to replace ran the machine with the front door OPEN. Which, when I try, gives me Interlock errors out the wazoo.. I find it a pain in the butt and would like to run with the doors open.. is there some sort of over ride I can punch into the NC to alleviate this head ache?
If anybody has any help for me be careful because I have a million more questions.
We've been down a laser for 7 days now and I've only been able to cut 6 sheets of material... when it should be at least 6 sheets a day..
I'm running a Mitsubishi 3020.. I'll post the control unit tomorrow if it'll help.
Regards
Laser Idiot
anaquodm@gmail.com
My problems are varied.
1. 1/4" Mild steel is cutting fine in almost every direction. The x axis moving to zero is rough, lots of gouging, no dross and proper dimensions.. but the cut looks terrible. The rest of the sides look perfect. I have conducted lead tests and the laser appears to be passing through the nozzle dead center. I assisted our late operator in a lens and mirror cleaning two weeks ago, so I am familiar with the process of aligning the mirrors 1 through 6. Could I be slightly out of alignment on my 5 and 6 mirror? Or could it be the lens saver is dirty.
2. We run oxygen and nitrogen fine, they are regulated from our bulk packs. But our air compressor is old and oily. We've redundancy installed to dry the air and clean oil from the lines, but there doesn't seem to be any regulation when the assist air enters the machine for air cutting. I attempted some 20 gauge 304 Brush Stainless Steel today and I kept getting low assist pressure, then high assist pressure, then low again, then high. I had to continuously adjust the shutoff nozzle closed or open slightly to reproduce what a regulator would.. My question is.. is this normal? Should 120psi be able to me regulated internally by the laser cutter itself? Is there a setting I'm missing..
3. Not all that important. but a concern none the less.. The operator I'm attempting to replace ran the machine with the front door OPEN. Which, when I try, gives me Interlock errors out the wazoo.. I find it a pain in the butt and would like to run with the doors open.. is there some sort of over ride I can punch into the NC to alleviate this head ache?
If anybody has any help for me be careful because I have a million more questions.
We've been down a laser for 7 days now and I've only been able to cut 6 sheets of material... when it should be at least 6 sheets a day..
I'm running a Mitsubishi 3020.. I'll post the control unit tomorrow if it'll help.
Regards
Laser Idiot
anaquodm@gmail.com
