Industrial Laser Service LLC
Specializing in Bystronic Brand Lasers
Located in Grand Rapids, MI
Licensed and Insured
Preventative Maintenance
Preventative maintenance is basically fixing your machine so it doesn’t break. Think about your car or truck, you change the oil in it, or I hope you do, it won’t last long if you don’t. Well, your lasers are complex machines that require maintenance and inspection on a routine basis. On a CO2 laser your preventative maintenance cycle is every 2,000 hours. That breaks down to every 4 months if you run your machines 3 shifts a day, and 1 year if you only run it for 1 shift a day. For a BySprint Fiber the recommended preventative maintenance cycle is 1,000 hours. Remember the Fibers are producing sometimes as much as 4 times the product than a CO2 could do. So the fiber machines take more wear and tear.
Preventative Maintenance on a CO2 Laser
The main things on your CO2 lasers that need worked on during a PM are the optics and oils. The optics get dirty with time, this is the weakest link in the whole machine when it comes to the 2,000 hour service interval. Also, the oil in the vacuum pump and turbo, if you have oil in your turbo, needs to be replaced. So, a PM on a CO2 first starts with cleaning the optics and changing the oils, but there is much more. If your machine has a high voltage cabinet, it would get disassembled, inspected, and recalibrated. Then the CNC is serviced, which includes the z-axis. Then, the change tables, and automation would be checked. There are also a bunch of smaller checks on things like voltages and panel coolers. This takes about a day and a half to do, and longer if there are repairs.
Preventative Maintenance on a Fiber Laser
There are far less things that need to be done on a Fiber Laser for preventative maintenance. The list is basically the same as the CO2 list minus the optics and oils, (CNC, change tables, automation, and a bunch of smaller checks for things like panel coolers and voltages). That cuts the PM time down from a day and a half to one day and sometimes less.