Coherent Innova-325 - located near Port Huron Michigan - anyone interested?

[Escher]

I noticed this system on Craigslist and got in touch with the seller.

He believes it needs a recharge / retube. Asking $200. Pulled from an SLA machine.

From the specs online it appears to be a UV Argon laser, setup for three phase power. Link http://www.coherent.com/downloads/Innova300Datasheet.pdf

Let me know if interested and I'll pass along the info / pics in an email.

 

[KGB_Productions]

How about you post a link to the craigslist add so we can all see what your talking about.

 

[Escher]

Sorry - My bad - although there isn't much info in the ad...

SLA 500 argon ion laser and remote

 

[LSRFAQ]

The 325 has a sealed mirror high reflector on the rear of the tube and a brewster window and conventional mirror on the output coupler. They are UV only. That tube does not do much until it reaches 40 amps of current and the PSU can do in excess of 55 amps, so not something your going to run off a phase converter.

The PSU reads a eeprom in the head and checks the tube voltage vs current vs output level every few seconds. If the curve does not match after 10-20 minutes of operation, the laser shuts down and you need to reset and restart it. You need a service EPROM to recalibrate the head for other tubes, and those DO NOT grow on trees.

Because the UV lasing process requires a extra ionization step, the bore is very tiny, they drive the heck out of them, and have a extra high magnetic field, which draws even more current out of the wall, then a normal I90 class laser.

I've actually had one on the pumping station, let one up to atmosphere in a argon filled glove box, and tried changing the sealed mirror to a brewster for blue/green, and the bore is too small for the conversion. I got the plasma relit, but could not achieve lasing over a wide pressure range. I'm not the only one who has tried, we all got the same result with the 325.

If its not lasing, leave it alone, unless you need a pile of passbank transistors or a cathode transformer for repairs of other units. If you have another 300 series laser, the PSUs are interchangable, the brains are on a board in the head.

If you do get one, I have the manual.

However the stereolitho guys drive the snot out of them and run them for long periods of time at full blast

Usually they have optics for 351 nm installed, you can change to the other UV wavelengths by changing the OC mirror.

There is 30-40$ worth of copper wire and brass in the magnet. Maybe 10$-15$ worth of other scrap metals.

Steve