A POWER DISTRIBUTION MODEL OF INDUSTRIAL CO2-LASERS FOR SYSTEM DIAGNOSIS

Industrial lasers are high power pieces of equipment that occasionally function under undesirable operating conditions. For example, the per formance of a transverse-flow d.c.-excited gas laser can be adversely affected by many factors such as electrode arcing, poor lens and mirro r cleanliness, focusing problems, improper gas mixture composition, po or gas quality, poor beam stability, poor beam path cleanliness, opera tor error, poor maintenance, poor chiller water temperature and flow r ate stability, and improper laser beam ramp-in/ramp-out rates. Many of these factors which occur in the production environment are unpredict able and therefore difficult to simulate in the laboratory or the lase r manufacturer's facilities. In this paper, a poser distribution model of a transverse flow d.c.-excited CO2 laser is developed and validate d to link the input discharge power to the output laser beam power, as melt as the heat losses. This model establishes a foundation for moni toring the laser performance by measuring signals critical to the lase r performance such as temperature, pressure, voltage, current, and gas mixture flow rate and quality. The results show that quantitative thr esholds can be defined based on the proposed model to detect some impe nding system faults for preventative maintenance purposes.