Any one tried at re gassing a co2 laser ?
Any one tried at re gassing a co2 laser ?
Yes. It can be done, and it’s RELATIVELY straightforward as far as reprocessing goes, but it’s rarely worth the effort and expense involved; in many cases it’s both easier and less expensive to just pop in a new tube. For the most part, tubes on CO2 lasers are regarded as a consumable.
Just out of curiosity, why?
RF excited and medical tubes are done all the time. I've pumped one DC tube myself, but I do not have Xenon and Carbon Monoxide on station, so lifetime was short.
Steve
I processed the GTE Sylvania / Spectra-Physics / Line Lite Laser line of sealed CO2 lasers in the early '80s. Still have the formula in a file I'm sure.
Totally right, Steve- medical is a whole different story.
...BIG material processing gear- Sure.
...RF excited tubes of decent power- Sure.
Glass tubes for a far-east desktop cutter- nah.
It is excitation, cooling, catalyst, tube and optics dependent. RF tubes get a different mixture that self catalyzes in a different way then DC tubes.
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I'll give you an example based on three RF heads I own...
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Diffusion Cooled RF lasers start with the ratio of 3:1:1 + 5% Helium, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen then add Xenon at 5% of best fill pressure.
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Then traces of Carbon Monoxide, Hydrogen, Argon, Oxygen, and/ or Water Vapor can be added, but what is used is design and catalyst dependent. Each manufacturer tweaks the mixture for best lifetime. Three One One is only a starting guide used in laser research. Helium is sometimes added all the way out to 8:1:1.
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With a Gold catalyst, you can expect nearly 1% Carbon Monoxide.
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The reason for all the tweaking is to control the percentage of disassociated Co2 in the tube plasma to near optimum at 40-50%.
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Old flowing gas medical systems using DC and water cooling use: 9.5% CO2, 13% nitrogen, and 77% Helium, sometimes with a trace of Xenon.
Steve
Qui habet Christos, habet Vitam!
I should have rented the space under my name for advertising.
When I still could have...
First i pull vacumm to 0.01torr, then fill to atm using c02, then pull vacumm to 0.1torr again (to flush the tube), then i add the laser mix to atm, then i set my psu to the correct current for tube and pull vacumm to get the most power output, run tube for 1 hr , let sit 24hrs and re adjust vacumm as necesary to obtain peak power, seal tube, done.