“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Wise words to live by. But these tough financial times it seems as if several are contemplating the cost of the ounce of prevention. Today’s economic climate has most everyone in survival mode, giving careful consideration as to where to allocate their budgets. Companies are more careful these days to maximize the return on their investments than perhaps they have been in the past. For example, sometimes it just makes sense that new purchases are put on hold while the maintenance of existing equipment has taken a higher priority. At the same time, quality of the work done is dependent on the one tasked with maintaining existing equipment and is expected to exceed, or at least meet existing expectations.
In the world of the laser engineer, these concepts are not at all foreign. The laser measurement community is aware of these challenges and continues to develop valuable and simple, yet cost-effective and time-saving tools to help laser engineers and laser users easily diagnose, maintain and prolong the life of their cutting, welding, ablating and marking lasers. For this paper, we will discuss the tools and some techniques used to maintain two different laser systems common to manufacturing environments: Nd:YAG laser seam and spot welding lasers and CO2 cutting lasers, providing examples of how these tools can increase the efficiency and improve the performance of these lasers.