3 tips to maintain the best performance of a laser cutting machine in winter

Summary: This article mainly explains the necessity of laser cutting machine winter maintenance, the basic principles and methods of maintenance, how to select antifreeze of laser cutting machine, and matters needing attention.

Skills you can learn from this article: learn about the skills in laser cutting machine maintenance, refer to the steps in this article to maintain your own machine, and extend the durability of your machine.

Suitable readers: Companies who own laser cutting machines, workshops/individuals who own laser cutting machines, laser cutting machines maintainer, people who are interested in laser cutting machines.

----------------------------------------------------------



Winter is coming, so is the holiday! It’s time for your laser cutting machine to take a break. However, without correct maintenance, this hard-working machine may 'catch a bad cold'. Mimowork would love to share our experience as a guide for you to prevent your machine from damage:



The necessity of your winter maintenance:


Liquid water will condense into a solid when the air temperature is below 0℃. During condensation, the volume of deionized water or distilled water increases, which could burst the pipeline and components in the water-cooling system (including chillers, lasers tubes, and laser heads), causing damage to sealing joints. In this case, if you start up the machine, this may cause damage to the relevant core components. Therefore, focusing on anti-freezing is super important for you.

If it bothers you to constantly monitor whether the signal connection of the water-cooling system and laser tubes are in effect, worrying about whether something is going wrong all the time. Why not taking action in the first place? Here we recommend 3 methods below that are easy for you to try out:



1. Control the temperature:


Always make sure the water-cooling system keeps running 24/7, especially at night.

The energy of the laser tube is the strongest when the cooling water at 25-30℃. However, for energy efficiency, you can set the temperature between 5-10℃. Just make sure the cooling water flow normally and the temperature is above freezing.



2. Add antifreeze:


Antifreeze for laser cutting machine usually consists of water and alcohols, characters are high boiling point, high flash point, high specific heat and conductivity, low viscosity at low temperature, fewer bubbles, no corroding to metal or rubber.

First, antifreeze helps to reduce the risk of freezing but it can not heat or preserve heat. Therefore, in those areas with low temperatures, the protection of machines should be emphasized to avoid unnecessary losses.

Secondly, various types of antifreeze due to the proportion of preparation, different ingredients, the freezing point is not the same, then should be based on local temperature conditions to select. Do not add too much antifreeze to the laser tube, the cooling layer of the tube will affect the quality of light. For the laser tube, the higher frequency of use, the more frequently you should change the water. Please note some antifreeze for cars or other machine tools that could harm the metal piece or rubber tube. If you have any trouble with antifreeze, please consult your supplier for advice.

Last but not the least, no antifreeze can completely replace deionized water to be used throughout the year. When winter ends, you must clean pipelines with deionized water or distilled water, and use deionized water or distilled water as cooling water.



3. Drain the cooling water:


If the laser cutting machine will be switched off for a long time, you need to evacuate the cooling water. The steps are given below.

1. Turn off the chillers and laser tubes, unplug the corresponding power plugs.

2. Disconnect the pipeline of lasers tubes and naturally drain the water into a bucket.

3. Pump compressed gas into one end of the pipeline (pressure shall not exceeding 0.4Mpa or 4kg), for auxiliary exhaust. After done water draining, repeat step 3 at least 2 times every 10 minutes to make sure water is completely evacuated.

4. Likewise, drain the water in chillers and laser heads with the instructions above. If you are not sure, please consult your supplier for advice.



What would you do to take care of your machine? We would love it if you let me know what you think in the comment below/by e-mail.

We are going to write a regular maintenance guide. If you are interested or you have some suggestions, please send an e-mail to [email protected], we can send you a pdf guide once it has done. :)

Also, you can check our official website for more information: www.mimowork.com



Wish you a warm and lovely winter!

Ensure the air sources are clean. ...
Keep reviewing your chiller performance. ...
Ensure proper gas delivery. ...
Check your machine's optics. ...
Keep your machine clean.

Antifreeze is the most important step, since trying to keep water above 0C is an exercise in futility, as they say. Other than that just performing proper maintenance is enough.

Before you start the machine, carefully check the laser working gas and cutting gas pressure, if the gas pressure is not enough, you should replace it.

add a professional brand special antifreeze; drain all the cooling water in the chiller and keep the valve open