All You Need to Know About Laser Cleaning

Laser dust removal is an important process of removing dust from a surface. It is also referred to as laser ablation. Laser ablation is basically the process of removing material from a solid surface simply by irradiating it with a laser beam. You can remove any type of dust with this method, like plastic, metallic, and organic dust. In this process, the laser beam irradiates the surface by which burnt off dust gets vaporized and extracted by using a proper dust extraction nozzle.

Here you also need to know that dust is not the only element that needs to be removed from a laser surface. There are various thin oxide layers and debris present on the surface which might be created after a few days of storing a part in intensely different environments. 

However, the laser cleaning system removes all types of unwanted elements like stainless steel oxide, powder coating, rust, aluminum oxide, etc., from the surface. There are several laser cleaning solutions available like rotary tables, on-the-fly cleaning machines, handheld lasers, robot arms, etc. Also, consider replacing parts with quality trumpf laser parts when required. And for emergencies save trumpf spare parts for each laser part. After knowing the basics about dust removal methods from the laser surface, let us take a deep dive into dust removal applications, more methods useful for removing dust, tips for the same, etc. 

Common Dust Removal Applications

Laser dust removal is popularly useful to ensure that laser surfaces are perfectly clean before any process like power coating, welding, adhesive bonding, etc. takes place from it. For different results, requirements, applications, one needs to adjust the cycle of the laser cleaning process. 

For instance, some manufacturers may require a textured surface for improving adhesion before coating. So how can they adjust the laser cleaning process? They can modify the roughness of the surface while cleaning it. This process is known as laser texturing. 

Especially for welding applications, the laser usually does not smoothen the roughness. Instead it leaves the metal surface unharmed to make sure that the integrity of the part is preserved after welding. 

Methods for Removing the Dust 

Here we will talk about traditional methods of cleaning. This includes manual surface cleaning, ultrasonic baths, and burn-off ovens to clean the dust from the laser surface. 

1. Manual Surface Cleaning

In this method, you need to clean the laser parts with a clean cloth dipped in an adequate amount of cleaning solutions such as acetone. This method provides required results if you skip on mistakes like using dirty clothes, lacking precision, touching the cleaned surface without wearing sterile gloves, and forgetting to clean specific parts.

2. Ultrasonic Baths

Ultrasonic baths include alcohol or acetone. These baths emit ultrasonic waves. This wave then travels through the liquid in order to dislodge dust. This is an effective method, but you need professionals to handle it. Additionally, it is also a long and time consuming process.

3. Burn Off Ovens

Burn off ovens helps in getting rid of organic residues by decomposing them in the form of gases and vapors. These ovens remove powder coating, dust, and other residues. Burn off ovens are high in cost and are expensive to run. But these ovens make laser cleaning much more manageable. 

Tips for Laser Dust Removal

As we know, a perfect process of dust removal is not only about cleaning the laser surface and removing dust. It is a process where you need to be careful about how you are cleaning the surface as it will eventually affect the quality of the laser parts and its surfaces. Thus, you should consider some important tips while cleaning the laser surface: 

• Once you have cleaned the laser parts with all the precautions, handle them with care and avoid touching them with bare hands. Always have gloves on your hands, otherwise, it will hamper the performance of the laser.

• Do not forget to perform the post-process treatments. Doing this right after cleaning the parts will help prevent dust and oxidation.
• Use an efficient dust extractor having a proper airflow for the cleaning purpose otherwise, you will end up having dust collections on the surface.
• Do not forget to clean the surface regularly after certain required intervals.
• Cover the unused areas of the surfaces.
• Make sure you are replacing your laser parts with quality parts like trumpf laser parts, trumpf spare parts, hypertherm parts, etc. when required  

There are numerous benefits of laser dust removal, like offering speed, automation, accuracy, and consistency. Without any of this, your final output would not come as desired. Thus, the cleaning process is important to make sure that the quality of your output is not hampered but enhanced. Additionally, cleaning laser parts with laser surfaces can help you to increase the longevity of the laser machine. It will directly affect how precise and clean the output would be. Thus, make sure you follow the given tips and clean your laser surfaces regularly.

Source: https://altpartsinc.wixsite.com/altpartsinc/single-post/all-you-need-to-know-about-laser-cleaning

Things You Must Know Before You Start Laser Cutting

Laser cutting, etching, engraving. It is one of the coolest ways to bring your designs to reality. It provides you results with precision, multi-layered lettering, and design.

Laser cutters are powerful, realistic tools to burn most things like wood, paper, plastic to create a design that you imagine.

So, before you buy a laser cutter, keep these five things in mind to make a precise choice.

The Main Choice: Laser Cutter

A typical laser cutter that most designers and engineers use consists of a 100W laser that have Trumpf nozzles. Between the laser’s extractor fan and sourced materials, your cost can reach $8000 to construct the whole setup. If you are just starting, you can even go for a smaller laser like 40W laser cutters available online. You can even search for parts like precitec nozzles or Trumpf parts online to setup the perfect product for your use.

40W laser cutter can help you with etching the designs you want on a thin place of birch plywood. You can also use acrylic material if you are looking for some cool opaque effects. Also, you can retrofit an old DVD players’ 5W laser into a working laser cutter if you have smaller use cases. It can do more than just etching a design on a piece of paper.

How to Source the Equipment to Build One?

In the digital age, you find many online options for your requirements. For nozzle parts, you can go for precitec nozzles, Trumpf nozzles online to source the best equipment for your business. Other than that consider referrals from your circle. They might also work best!  

What Materials to Choose?

You can not just pick any old material and start blasting it with a laser. There are numerous materials like polycarbonate sheets that produce thick, acrid smoke when coming in contact with the laser. Also, make sure that you don't go for cardboard as much as possible. Because the focused heat can cause fire easily when dealing with electrical equipment.

Birch plywood is a few millimeters thick but worth to add material; you can design simply with this material.

Your First Design

To find the best designs to start with, the internet is your bible. Of Course, it does not mean copying others' work. But you can get some cool ideas with which you can create your own designs. You get ready-made SVG files, DXF to put into a laser cutter software for printing.

General Things for Using Laser Cutter

Power: It defines the output power of the laser. It can be from 0 to 100%. Generally, high power to cut thick materials and lower power to engrave and cut thin materials.

Speed: It decides the movement speed of the laser head. To engrave and cut thin material, the speed is usually set to the maximum.

Frequency (Hz, PPI): It specifies the number of laser pulses per second. For instance, wood cuts are best at 500 to 1000 Hz. For acrylic, 5000 to 20000 Hz is the minimum requirement.

Focus: There comes a focus lens inside the laser head. It should be on the surface of the material or slightly below for most of the applications. Make sure that materials are at a certain distance from the lens. The exact distance depends on the type of focus lens.

There are so many types of laser machines that come with a motorized bed. You can move up and down to set the focus distance. And the position of the material surface should be also manually adjusted.

Parts: Make sure you are using the best brand parts like Trumpf nozzles, Amada laser parts, etc. to get the most accurate results.

It’s time to cut!

Don’t worry, it can take a few tries to find the ideal settings for your material. Make sure you change only one parameter in a test process. For example, do not forget to write down your current settings for future reference.

How to Maximizing Your Laser Production

With laser engraving and cutting system, there is one thing that comes as an absolute benefit: the speed. These systems render the fastest results to etch a pattern or cut the piece with the design. But when you have such a system in place, it is important to maintain efficiency otherwise it can hamper your overall growth. So, here are six hacks to help you with maximizing your Laser Production. 

1. Make a Batch

A basic thing to pay your attention to. When you print multiples at one time, it reduces production time. This can be possible in the cases when you require the same engraving or cutting on more than one item. When you engrave in batches, you can experience an increase of 37% in the time savings. When you are working in the batches, how many products would go in once depends hugely on the table size. You need to enlarge the page size in your graphic design program to match the full table size where you place your laser. In such cases, you can use a jig to space out the items. The output from any batch would be a result of using the right nozzle which includes a Trumpf nozzle or Precitec nozzles.

Adjusting Resolution

This is another factor to consider when you want to increase production. Especially in engraving jobs, it is important that the final image output is adequate. When you keep your DPI(Dots per inch) higher, it will take longer to engrave the item. And if your DPIs are higher, then the dots are going to be closer together. This will produce a detailed image, but it might take a bit longer time. If you lower your engraving resolution a bit, it can increase your time savings by 33% or more. The key here is to find the right combination of resolution and pattern which render achievable results with good quality in less time.

Color Mapping

Using color mapping can save your engraving time. For example, there is a design with three columns and in it, there are 30 names. At first, the laser will see it as one image and the laser head will travel over the white space columns to engrave the graphic. When you have a color mapping in place, it enables you to skip all the white space as it assigns each column a different color and an associated engraving order. This way, the laser will engrave one column at a time, traveling over white space. It will save you almost 43% time depending on the item you have put for the job. For better results of this technique, you can use a Trumpf nozzle or Precitec nozzles in the implementation.

Center engraving

This makes it easy to work with the various sized items, as you can create a custom template for each one. It allows the user to move the laser by hand to the center of the project. Set the center point as the new home position and the laser will utilize that point to properly place the graphic. Compared to other items it will save you a lot of time.

Pre-engrave Items

Customization is a great opportunity to give your business a new customer base. But singular jobs can prove to be very inefficient. Because if you load and produce the same design over and over in your engraving machine, it consumes a lot of your production time. To overcome this obstacle, you can pre-engrave and create an inventory of your popular items. This way you can just load pre-engraved material and save a lot of money & time.  Thus, pre-engraving can help you to engrave the same items in one go to decrease the production time. It becomes easy to pre-engrave the major graphics of the design onto a batch. Once the order comes in, you can simply use one of the pre-engraved boards back in the machine.

Using Job Manager

Using a job manager will help in keeping track of the regular jobs done in your laser machine. It becomes easy to streamline your laser processing workflow. It saves your time by giving you access to job time records, databases, status and more.

In a Nutshell

It is important to maximize your laser production for long-term production benefits. When it comes to laser machines, keeping these little things in place would help you eliminate unnecessary gaps in your system. Plus, an increased rate of the job will be your additional advantage.