An important factor in the winter resonator maintenance process is whether or not a leak occurs.
First, it is necessary to periodically check whether the laser gas (He, CO2, N2) leaks, and secondly, whether the coolant leaks. It doesn’t cost money, so you need to check it regularly on site so that it doesn’t cost a lot of money.
First, turn off the Laser ON so that the laser is in the idle state. Then operate as following:
1. Turn off the machine power by pressing the Machine ON button (the main switch is not turned off).
2. Press the SETUP button located below the automatic production button.
3. Press the softkey.
4. Scroll down the menu and select [TruFlow Laser Intervene 1] and check if the Chiller status is OFF (must be OFF).
5. No. 1 [1. Activate switch elements].
6. No. 2 [2. Vacuum pump] to turn on the vacuum pump.
7. No. 3 [3. Purge fast] and wait until the oscillator system pressure drops below 30hPa.
8. Then press No. 2 and No. 3 to turn OFF, record the system pressure (OLD) at that moment and wait for 5-10 minutes.
9. Record the waiting time in minutes, and then record the instantaneous system pressure (NEW) to calculate the leak rate as follows.
(NEW pressure – OLD pressure) / Waiting time (minutes) = leak rate)
If the leak rate calculated above is greater than 0.1, there is a problem related to gas leak. As a result, the laser power is supposed to drop. Now that the coolant leak rate needs to be calculated.
10. Repeat steps 5 to 9 again in the above sequence.
11. 7 times [7. Cooling Unit] to turn on the chiller, wait for 5-10 minutes, measure the time in minutes, and calculate the leak rate again using the above formula.
Such as, if the second calculated leak rate (NEW LEAK RATE) is larger than (OLD LEAK RATE), it is a water leak inside the oscillator
It is a very serious problem that a water leak is occurring inside the oscillator. Immediately, the gas cooler inside the oscillator should be replaced and the inside of the oscillator should be cleaned. Otherwise, all the mirrors inside the oscillator will be damaged and the laser output will be attenuated as well as the turbo blower, which is the core element of the oscillator, will gradually fail.
If there is no problem with the RF power supplied from the generator, but the laser output is significantly lowered, the first thing to do is to suspect a gas leak or a water leak. In particular, even if you put antifreeze in winter, if it is very cold, water leakage may occur due to freezing of the coolant remaining in the gas cooler inside the oscillator.
