4x8 Gantry Laser Questions

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4x8 Gantry Laser Questions

Postby liaoh75 » Wed May 09, 2012 3:23 pm

Hi All,

I'm building a 4x8 gantry type laser cutter. I'm using a 150 watt Chinese glass tube co2 laser. I'll be using the 2012 DSP of course. I have a few questions if you guys don't mind me asking.

1. If my tube which is 1850mm long and 90mm in diameter, will it crack if the gantry is accelerating/decelerating too fast? I'm running 750 watt servos on each side of my gantry. My servos are driving lead screws with a pitch of 25mm/revolution with 2:1 belt reduction. My gantry is in the neighborhood of 70kgs and 2.7 meters long. My servo motor vendor promises me a speed of 600mm/second and acceleration from stop to full speed in one second and deceleration from 600mm/second to full stop in zero point one (0.1) seconds.

2. Due to the gantry design, cables will be through a cable chain. Now, does the laser power run in the chain as well or should it ride in the gantry behind the tube itself? Will it cause interference with my Y axis servo if I place the laser power supply in the gantry? Can the power supply take the acceleration/deceleration?

The finished laser cutter will be about 850-900 Kg so I don't see vibration as being an issue but correct me if I am wrong. For those that might be scratching your head as to why my gantry is so long, my gantry is running landscape orientation to accommodate to the long 1.85m tube.

Thanks to all that take interest in my project and kind enough to offer me your input.

David
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Re: 4x8 Gantry Laser Questions

Postby TLHarrell » Wed May 09, 2012 4:06 pm

I don't see any major issue with running a tube on the gantry. You will need to account for not only power supply, but also cooling. This design greatly reduces the complexity of the optics, as you are running the laser in a single plane. The tube will need to be extremely well supported. Having a single set of mounts at each end, then trying high acceleration/deceleration will definitely break the tube. Also, I'd recommend having switches for both ends of travel on the gantry as you don't want to hit a hard stop and cause a shock load to the tube. You could run the power supply in the gantry, but will need a separate path of travel for the motor wiring/power wiring to prevent induction and noise. Good plan so far.
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