All significant Machine Failures or damage inflicted on the machine should be documented on this page of Wiki within 24hrs of the event here. Take a photo of the damage, and note the supervisor at the time.
This is a non-exhaustive list of our fails with the Trotec Rayjet 300. Please edit and expand as you see fit.
The removable cutter bed has been accidently etched a number of times, mostly during the first months of operation. Four incident types have occurred.
Using the 'move job to laser' option in the rajet minimanager software with laser head positioned over frame means that the cutter can cut into the bed frame.
Solutions:
Cutting from an template or document other than The Edge spec may have the 0,0 point not in the top left position. This will mean that the cutter can move over the bed.
Solutions
If the cutter bed is not correctly aligned and slotted into place, the cutter can move over the edge of the bed. Solutions
If the laser job is interrupted by lifting the lid, then a resume is attempted by shutting the lid and restarting the machine from the control panel, the laser will behave erratically and may cut into bed
This is our in house catalogue of ways to stuff up the laser lens. In addition to our own experience, asearch of the sawmillcreek forums is recomended.
Scratched on Insertion/removal
Lens can be scratched on the edge of the lens mount on insertion and removal.
Solution
Scratched when cleaning
Any grit combined with excessive scrubbing will scratch the lens.
Solutions
The laser lens is soft, brittle and vulnerable to thermal shock.
Lens overheating
An accumulation of “gunk” from the vaporised material can stick to the lens as a dark spot. If this spot is heated by the laser, the lens can crack.
Solution
Lens Thermal Shock
If the lense is touched or wetted while hot it may shatter or crack
Solutions
We lost our first lense on 26/06/2016. After heavy use engraving ply the lense chipped in cleaning.
I'm not sure what the cause of this was - but after research 1) 2) it appears that cleaning before lense was cool is likely.
Sometimes all of the lights on the control panel will be flashing and the machine made a continuous beeping sound. It will not commence the boot cycle. On the computer you'll probably see an machine error message on the computer the laser is connected to; LaserError: 163 (Firmware – Error Code).
This might be an X/Y/Z access limit issue caused if the laser arm (or I am assuming bed) is moved manually onto a limit switch when the machine is off or in standby the laser can go into error. To resolve:
* Start by moving the head to the middle of the bed and switch on again.
* If it is on a z axis limit then open a side and wind the z axis belt to lower or raise the table 10mm.
In its working life, we've had two head crashes (that I'm are aware off). I'm not sure what caused the first one, but the second which occurred 01/06/2016 was definitely operator error - auto-focus switched on. As confirmed with Marc from Trotec there is no way to disable auto-focus in software.
As an attempt to technical solve this problem I delved into the nature of printer spooling on windows 7, to see if we can re-write the document post spooling but pre-printing and force auto-focus off. Its possible. You can use something like this
http://splviewer.sourceforge.net/
to poke at the windows spool files, but would require .NET programming to implement.
An open source soultion to use inkscape plug-ins to generate Trotec Spool Files. https://github.com/bumblebeefr/fablab-inkscape-plugins
These are the filter readings on the Atmos Mono Speedy 500 we took on 17/06/2016.
With a borked filter (reading 100% in use and shutting down) and requiring replacement:
Activated Carbon + (OLD) HEPA only 90 %
Found a supplier here - http://polycorecomposites.com/Home.php
Quoted $880 for a 2440 x 1200 x 25mm rigid sheet. 1mm cell wall - 8 mm cell
Thursday 25 Aug Brendan reported crack in the lens found after laser was cutting underpowered. New lens order
Michael from trotec came out with Temporary replacement ( different size lens 2“) that did not end up fitting. 2x stock lenses (1.5”) are on order from Sydney. Michael cleaned damaged lens and said it would be right to use but that it was on its way out.
Photos show black dot inside body of lens. this will grow. Questions to be asked about
Michael from Trotec returned with the 2“ Lense ( black) and showed me how to fit this.
Phil had to put a fire out today 2ply corrugated cardboard again. The settings appear correct (no second pas which is usually the problem). The Laser was also doing weird stuff after - etching the ruler starting in a weird position. this was rectified by cycling power on Laser and PC.
Phil did raise the concerns about extinguishing the fire. When it came to it he didn't know what to do ( he tried to put it out with his hand which sounds silly but the first time i had to put out a cardboard fire in the laser i reached in pulled the cardboard out and stamped it out - not ideal either) my suggestion from the experience is to use the fire blanket. i did this the second time and it worked a treat. MB
Had an incident this evening where the 1st laser job at the HtE was well and truely under power. When i went to inspect the lense i found that all the parts of the Laser Head (Lense, mirror, retaining collar, and head body)was overheated ( approx 60C). We left this to cool before cleaning anything.
The only explanation i can give is that perhaps the trusted participant that cleaned the Laser after their session accidently or unknowingly reassembled the Lense/retaining collar upside down. (Lense on top of collar for 2“; lense Collar on top of Lense for 1.5” lense) This would have put the laser beam badly out of focus and directed energy at the nozzle which is now heat affected.
This is just a theory… i don't know for sure and wouldn't want to blame this participant. However if it is true the incident points possibly to a failure to communicate new procedures to the couple of trusted participants we allow to clean the machine and possibly to other level 3 facilitators we'd trust to operate and supervise the machine.
24 Nov 2016 had another incidence of the Lense falling out/ heating up due to not being aligned. The Theory is that this was caused by the lense collar not being tightend properly ( or working undone - probably) the Last person to use and clean the machine was a recently level 3 inducted Edge employee.
MB
29 Nov 2016
Its difficult to see, but in the the top right hand quarter of the lens, near the rim it seems like there is a coating on the lens which is lifting off or be abraded.
Consult with Mark from Trotec regarding lens coating. Is it coated? Lens is Zinc Selenium good guide to cleaning here.
AM
13/12/2016
So I’ve have a near miss with the lense – it was so dirty after cutting a single sheet of masked 6mm ply that it took a good 30 min to clean that I think any further cutting would have resulted in damage for sure.
First I tried the spray and soak then wipe method, but I had a stubborn spot of bunge that persisted despite repeated attempts. I then moved up to acetone on a cotton tip wrapped with lense cleaner. After a couple of applications this did the trick.
I would suggest we replace the current lense cleaner with the original trotec supplied bottle as this did seem to deal with stubborn gunk better.
Another reason to replace the pump spray bottle is that it cools the lense quickly. While we should never clean the lense warm anyway , this might just eliminate another possible point of failure.
AM
This is a heavily used lens - notice the damage to the lens coating and scratches.
This is the brand new lens - received in the first week on March 2017. Already scratched by 6/03/2017.
The filter had not been cleaned in over two months. The pre-filter was caked solid with materials and the HEPA component of the filter system blew out. Would suggest that this as a direct result of the lack of cleaning and maintenance on the system and that this shortened the life of the filter.