Bystronic cutting issues

[Muticraft]

Hello, new to the forum and enjoying the writings.I have a bystar 3015 3k watt CO2 laser with Nitrogen assist gas that I work on and wanted to see if I could get some suggestions. The operators are going through the cutting head lenses too often. We cut pretty much all galvanized steel.The lenses tend to get splatter on the exit side of the lense from the cut. It appears to happen on the thicker steel, 10-12gauge.The lense did last for 3 or 4 weeks but sometimes they get changed every week and it adds up the cost being over 300 bucks apiece. I know that a lot of factor play a part during set up such as, speed, power,tip height,piercing, gas pressure etc: It appears like it has got worse over the last year. Any suggestion would be helpful. Thanks,

 

[krugtech]

you need to look at your piercing gas pressure, the standby gas pressure, nozzle height and check to see if you're piercing at nozzle height or above the material. Are you pulse piercing? Do you see sparks blow all over the place when you pierce?

Chris Krug

http://krugtech.com/

 

[Muticraft]

Thanks Krugtech,It appears to be piercing before the tip reaches the metal as it is lowering sometimes. Yes, sometimes sparks blow all over the place when pierceing. It had 0 as standby pressure in the parameters and I thought it was odd so I tried entering 1.5-2 bars and it didnt like the change and went back to zero when the sheet switched out.The default for tip height appears to be .7mm and I had them change it to 1.0mm but theres different people run the laser and this could be some of the issue with the set-up? Is it best to change to the larger cutting head when cutting over 2.5mm thick steel? The thin gauge stuff appears to cut ok most of the time. But when changing jobs after cutting the thicker stuff, it appeared to take a beating on the lens.

 

[krugtech]

What do you mean when you say it didn't like the change?

You should always use standby gas. I would never use a nozzle height of less than 1mm when using capacitive height sensing. If it blows sparks all over the place sometimes, maybe you just need to increase your piercing time.

If you're cutting with nitrogen, a 5 inch lens is usually good up to about 5 or 6 mm. There is no set law as far as this is concerned.

As for many people running the laser- Make sure the original cutting parameters are backed up and then try to get everyone on the same page as to what parameters are actually being used. Too many times I've seen the second shift operator come in and take over a job that's running great and then spend half an hour dialing in the parameters. Then the third shift operator does the same thing and when the first shift operator comes in he puts everything back to where he had it. All these idiots are doing is wearing out the keyboard.....

Chris Krug

http://krugtech.com/

 

[HenryRollins]

Change your stand by gas pressure to 2.4 bar, don't pulse pierce, use CW piercing. Use a #3 pierce (Nozzle height) and set nozzle height for pierce to 2.5 mm with 2 bar gas pressure piercing. Consider using a stainless steel parameter of equal thickness when cutting galvanized or galvanealed material you don't have a parameter for.


-HR

 

[krugtech]

Listen to Henry, he's better at running a laser than I am. He can't fix them as good as I can though ha hah haahha

If Henry was a driver and I was the pit crew, we would own NASCAR

Chris Krug

http://krugtech.com/

 

[Muticraft]

Thanks guys, I'm just waiting to see the NASCAR team you put together with a Turbo engine and laser fire painted across the car.
Your correct, We have different operators and all them want to make changes to the parameters and if it is cutting bad they will leave it for the next shift to grind off. This happen this week. Some of the parts didnt have a standby pressure and had to be ajusted and others had 2.2bar. After the changes it cuts as it should. Companys dont want to pay for operator training in many cases, so the guys dont know what they are doing much of the time. So when the cost goes up in lenses every month they wonder why? They are not saving any money at all. Thanks again.