Stupid question

[nokillzone]

If i get a laser tube of 60W and a power supply of 40W Lets say.

Will that extend the life of the tube?
Planing of building a laser engraver and using
DSP CO2 Laser Engraving/ Cutter Controller. Support CorelDraw & AutoCad

http://www.lightobject.com/DSP-CO2-Laser-Engraving-Cutter-Controller-Support-CorelDraw-AutoCad-P321.aspx

Don't know how hard will it be to wire it all up.

Hope i hear some good feedback.
Thanks!

[nobacoutinho]

I am in this doubty too....
.
" If i get a laser tube of 60W and a power supply of 40W Lets say.

Will that extend the life of the tube? "

[zax15uk]

Only a fool answers a stupid question - so here goes.

Buying a 60W tube and 60W PSU and running the laser at less than full power (reduced pulse width) will significantly increase the tube life over running it at 100%. This is true with any laser, diodes or gas tubes.

I'm not sure if the trigger / tickle requirements are the same between the 40 and 60W tubes but I suspect not, in which case you'll either get no output (it won't fire) or you'll stress the PSU and cause it to fail earlier.

Zax.

P.S. it wasn't really a stupid question... so I guess that doesn't make me a fool

[nokillzone]

So one should always try to buy matching power supply and a laser tube?
or buy a 60W system but run it less than 70% ?

Would that slightly extend its life span??

[zax15uk]

Most power supplies are suitable for several power levels, for example you can buy a PSU which is rated for 40, 60 and 80W tubes. This is ok.

If you run any laser at reduced power it will last much longer.

If you need 40W for cutting, buy a 60W instead of pushing a 40W at 100% duty cycle.

Zax.

[nokillzone]

Thanks .. id realy like to make this happen. been thinking about it for soo long now ..
and with what this controler dose i like seems easy.