Dirty lens / Lens maintenance

Discussions on optics for laser cutter/engravers

Dirty lens / Lens maintenance

Postby educa » Sun Feb 03, 2013 11:40 pm

Hi,

I think my laser has been cutting now between 50 and 70 hours and yesterday I couldn't help noticing that my laser power decreased.
The tube I have is a 80Watt RECI and I was cutting 4mm plywood at around 8 IPM with a PPI of 400 (which normally worked) but the laser didn't seem to get through.


So I looked at my lens and found out that its a little dirty.

Image

On the photo it doesn't look THAT dirty, but if you look at it with good lighting, you clearly see that the UP-part (curved side) (which never got air assist or smoke) was in very good condition, but the DOWN-side (flatter side) was just like it was all greasy and there were dirty bubbles on the lens surface. They are not big, but they are there and the lens is looking slightly matte (like if I would have touched it with greasy fingers, which I didn't do)

I took a closeup pic with a microscope camera to see that bad surface.

Image


Now I do have to admit that while building my laser, I had burned a couple of times (maybe for only 2 aor 3 minutes) without air assist.

Also (and I guess that might be my bigger problem) I pump air through the air assist head with an air compressor and that air compressor does not have an air dehumidifier, so the air contains also water.


Would this be the cause of my problem?

Can I clean this lens somehow ?

Is there maintenance you should do regularly on a lens to keep it fit ?



I hope somebody could inform me a little more.


Kind regards,

Bart
educa
 
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Re: Dirty lens / Lens maintenance

Postby joskerel » Thu Feb 07, 2013 5:35 am

from what i've read you must clean it with a bit off alcohol and a ear wipe after thad go over it with the tissue the lens came in ,and put a air drainer on your compressor its 30 $
Ive done some cutting without air assist but do not get what you describe so fast so think your compressor is letting oil out as well ;-)
joskerel
 
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Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2012 5:51 am


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