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Maintenance Tips For Your Laser Cutting Machine

Author: Steven Glassner
by Steven Glassner
Posted: Dec 21, 2016

The efficiency and productivity of your laser cutting machine depends largely on how well it is maintained. Though it might come under a service contract for a given period, but it’s always a smart decision to regularly follow maintenance recommendations along with ensuring you use quality machine parts like Amada laser parts or Trumpf laser parts. If you look into your machine only when it has started malfunctioning, you will lose the time and efforts that will take up to troubleshoot and fix the problem. Therefore, it is crucial for you as a metal fabricator to ensure that your laser cutting machine is getting all the right kind of maintenance it requires for vigorous functioning. If taken care of habitually, it’s not a tough job and saves you from a lot of hassles in the future. Here are some maintenance tips for your laser cutting machine to maintain its output and competence throughout.

Ensure the air sources are clean

Laser cutting machines use assist gases like oxygen, nitrogen, or shop air, to facilitate cutting. Most of the fabricators choose shop air as the assist gas as it has the fastest processing speed. It is used to cut various metals like stainless steel, aluminum sheets, mild steel, etc. While using shop air as assist gas, the compressed air shouldn’t be impure and needs to be moisture free. To ensure this, the lines should always be clean and proper air pressure and air filtration should be maintained. The compressed air source and the lines should be a part of the regular maintenance routine as it can affect the performance, productivity, and working life of the machine.

Keep reviewing your chiller performance

You must make it a habit to keep a check on the chiller’s temperature gauge. Disparity in the temperature of the machine during operations can lead to poor performance. The resonator might get damaged in extreme cases. Though newer technology is much easier to look after, still you should regularly clean the condenser coils and filters. Many of the chillers require additives and chemicals, so make it a routine to do the needful at proper intervals.

Ensure proper gas delivery

There’s little to see here until you witness a leak or the hose pops off but there are times when leaks go unnoticed and this might affect the machine’s performance. As a precaution, you should apply soap water to the resonator gas bottles every time they are changed. It lets you know of any leaks much before it affects your productivity.

Check your machine’s optics

After any kind of maintenance done with the machine optics, you should ensure that they are returned to OEM specifications or it might affect the quality of your machine’s work by adversely affecting the beam quality, cutting performance, and optic life.

Keep your machine clean

Very obvious but as much important is to keep your equipment clean. If you don’t look after the delicate parts of your machine, it might put its hands down much before the expected time. Processing areas, slugs, scrap drawers, support slats, pallet ways, etc. should be kept clean of any kind of debris, grease, or dust as a dirty machine can affect its consistency and overall productivity.

About the Author

Alternative Parts, Inc. is the manufacturer and distributor of replacement parts for Amada Machinery.

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Author: Steven Glassner

Steven Glassner

Member since: Oct 20, 2016
Published articles: 73

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