Remember to exercise those argons!

[ultimatekaiser]

How big of a one do you have? Only pretty large frame ones really have them. Small argons just use a ballast instead, which is just part of the main tubing. It doesn’t replace any gas, and just provides a buffer to ensure there’s enough to keep the arc going. I personally have never owned an Ion big enough to have one. There is usually a button on the supply to add reserve gas if it has it equipped.

 

[Cyparagon]

I've got an HGM-5 which is a lot like a ALC-68. It'll do ~4W for ~30 seconds, or ~800mW continuously. I don't know why they're suddenly so hard to find pictures of, or why I can't find mine, but here's a few of the ALC-68

Laser à Argon ALC68 5W


So a ballast is different from a reservoir now?

 

[ultimatekaiser]

There's a fair bit of design variance between manufacturers. I dont think the little ALCs have those. The ones I can think of are really large spectra physics lasers. and I mean really large. like 25W. huge ass thing. small air cooled argons dont have gas replacement. just usually a large cathode end that acts as a gas ballast of sorts. its hard to explain without pictures.

 

[FRITZ HID]

you can see the reservoir just below the tube (in black heatshrink) on my ar/kr

 

[diachi]

There's a fair bit of design variance between manufacturers. I dont think the little ALCs have those. The ones I can think of are really large spectra physics lasers. and I mean really large. like 25W. huge ass thing. small air cooled argons dont have gas replacement. just usually a large cathode end that acts as a gas ballast of sorts. its hard to explain without pictures.

The 164/5/8s have the pressurized reservoir with the "fill" button on the exciter, doesn't need to be that big.

Similar sized Coherent heads have glass ampoules filled with pressurized gas which you break to bring the tube pressure up, IIRC.

 

[Cyparagon]

you can see the reservoir just below the tube (in black heatshrink) on my ar/kr

And mine looks similar, only with some sort of black foam tape/insulation around the tube going to the anode. My question remains: since there are no electronics to operate a valve here, is there not free flow to/from the reservoir?

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Yes. my 643 has a glass extention similar to that too. It's simply a ballast of gas to ensure the cathode end does not run out of gas volume while it is circulating. It is not a sealed reserve of gas for when the pressure is low. Only a few, generally really large argons have them. anything that runs on air in particular I can tell you already it has no gas replacement.

 

[DashApple]

This was on mine ( Its glowing due to a SSTc as I was testing if there was a gas fill )

IMG_0639 by TwirlyWhirly555, on Flickr

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Yes. Just like mine

 

[Cyparagon]

So a reservoir that is separated from the main tube via a valve is a type of ion laser that needs to be run regularly, and virtually every ion laser below 10W has minimal/no maintenance burns required. Am I understanding you correctly yet?

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Pretty much. It’s still can be beneficial but not for the same reasons. Little air cooled ones generally can rest for quite a long time without any issues. I still run mine periodically to keep the power supply healthy mainly. Running air cooled ones periodically is still good to keep the gas pressure consistent, which will keep the beam noise down and stuff like that, But the pressure in and of itself can never technically go higher than it was when it was initially filled. That’s why a lot of those old little air cooled tubes still work after so long even at mid life, and why some late life ones will start to re-light for a short time after sitting for a long period of storage, as the gas will slowly leech back out of the walls enough to let the tube light again.

That’s why the refurbishing business still does some small air cooled ions. As long as the tube structure and filiment are good you can just bake out the tube to release all the old gas and then refill it and it will work good as new.

That’s why you often saw these 10,000 hour rated tubes being re-tubed at 5000 ish hours, As running at low pressure is extremely hard on the filament and power supply. If you replenish the gas before it starts this excessive wear cycle, you will prolong the life of the very expensive tubing parts themselves.

 

[Cyparagon]

I still run mine periodically to keep the power supply healthy mainly.

I know a lot more about power supplies than I do about ion tubes, and I am aware of no mechanism by which this is possible. If anything, thermal cycling on electronics will cause more damage than leaving it sit. Do you know something I don't?

 

[ultimatekaiser]

That’s probably true but I’ve always been told that it’s good to run them once in a while to keep the electrolytics happy.

 

[Cyparagon]

I’ve always been told that it’s good to run them once in a while to keep the electrolytics happy.

Do you have a source for that? I can tell you that electrolytics have a lifetime rating like most other components. Here's one I picked at random from digikey. <2000 hours rated life at 105C (which will of course be quite a bit longer at a more reasonable temperature)

 

[ultimatekaiser]

I don’t really have a particular source for it. Just one of those word-of-mouth things that I’ve always been told. A lot of people I’ve worked with always told me that it was good to periodically power up electrolytics as it helped to maintain the electrolyte, and that they didn’t like sitting for long periods of time.

I’ve personally always been more biased toward using poly caps where possible.

 

[paul1598419]

IDK. It has been my experience that the electrolyte will dry out regardless of use. In fact, use may actually hasten the failure. It will also depend on the quality of the cap to begin with.