by Dinesh » Mon Jan 07, 2013 8:11 pm
Maybe we should start to relate laser tragedies just to give Milan some support - a sort of dead-laser-support-group. Not as good as Dead-DPSS lasers forum, but may serve same purpose.
Our own story is that we have a large frame Argon laser that needs 2.5 gallons of water (12 l) per minute. We got this from the city water supply by directly connecting a hose to the laser power supply water input. Well, one day, the city decided to do some maintenance work on the water supply to the lab, so they shut down the water supply without telling us about it. When I realised the water supply was cut off, I rushed to shut down the laser, but too late. The laser never came back to life. We checked the transistors on the power supply, we checked the fuses, nothing! Then we passes a fluorescent bulb over the laser tube (to check ionisation of plasma), nothing! Finally, we feared the worst and sent the laser to our supplier (Cambridge Lasers, amazing, wonderful company! Run by an old holographer called Brian Bohan, who some of you may have come across - he worked at Advanced Holographics with Nick Phillips and Jeff Blythe). Anyway, Brian told us the laser tube was dead. He could repair it with a new tube, re-align everything and tweak it all for 17,000 dollars. Well, with little choice and with a customer on a governement project with a deadline of his own, we had to bite the bullet and simply spend 17,000 dollars on it.
Well, now the laser works very well. We have built a system that we call the "Frankenchiller". It's a large trashcan, filled with water, attached to a pump at the bottom and with a toilet float on the top. The city water fills up the trashcan until it's full to the top, then the toilet float cuts off the city water. Meantime, the water is fed into a pump at the bottom of the trashcan that maintains a steady 2.5 gallons of water to the laser. If the water supply is interrupted (by city workers suddently deciding to do a maintenace, for example!), a flotation device (ping pong balls in a narrow tube of water) drops until an electrical contact is made. This electrical contact is connected to the laser safety switch and shuts off the laser. Meanwhile, the water will still be pumped at 2.5 gals/min for another two minutes (long enough for the laser to cool down). At the end of this two minutes, another electrical system turns off the pump so as not to burn it out. It was tested for us one time when we were out to lunch and worked exactly as it was supposed to.
So, you see, Milan, it appears black and dark for a while, but with a little will power and a determination to carry on, it is possible to recover, get up and start again and find a solution.
Maybe we should start to relate laser tragedies just to give Milan some support - a sort of dead-laser-support-group. Not as good as Dead-DPSS lasers forum, but may serve same purpose.
Our own story is that we have a large frame Argon laser that needs 2.5 gallons of water (12 l) per minute. We got this from the city water supply by directly connecting a hose to the laser power supply water input. Well, one day, the city decided to do some maintenance work on the water supply to the lab, so they shut down the water supply without telling us about it. When I realised the water supply was cut off, I rushed to shut down the laser, but too late. The laser never came back to life. We checked the transistors on the power supply, we checked the fuses, nothing! Then we passes a fluorescent bulb over the laser tube (to check ionisation of plasma), nothing! Finally, we feared the worst and sent the laser to our supplier (Cambridge Lasers, amazing, wonderful company! Run by an old holographer called Brian Bohan, who some of you may have come across - he worked at Advanced Holographics with Nick Phillips and Jeff Blythe). Anyway, Brian told us the laser tube was dead. He could repair it with a new tube, re-align everything and tweak it all for 17,000 dollars. Well, with little choice and with a customer on a governement project with a deadline of his own, we had to bite the bullet and simply spend 17,000 dollars on it.
Well, now the laser works very well. We have built a system that we call the "Frankenchiller". It's a large trashcan, filled with water, attached to a pump at the bottom and with a toilet float on the top. The city water fills up the trashcan until it's full to the top, then the toilet float cuts off the city water. Meantime, the water is fed into a pump at the bottom of the trashcan that maintains a steady 2.5 gallons of water to the laser. If the water supply is interrupted (by city workers suddently deciding to do a maintenace, for example!), a flotation device (ping pong balls in a narrow tube of water) drops until an electrical contact is made. This electrical contact is connected to the laser safety switch and shuts off the laser. Meanwhile, the water will still be pumped at 2.5 gals/min for another two minutes (long enough for the laser to cool down). At the end of this two minutes, another electrical system turns off the pump so as not to burn it out. It was tested for us one time when we were out to lunch and worked exactly as it was supposed to.
So, you see, Milan, it appears black and dark for a while, but with a little will power and a determination to carry on, it is possible to recover, get up and start again and find a solution.