90W RECI W2 laser tube outputs concentric circles

I’ve received a new laser I purchased. It’s a 90W RECI W2 laser. I initially thought I had bought the best, but now I think I might be one of the unlucky ones…

It turns out it has what I believe to be a defective laser beam, as it outputs a laser beam in the form of concentric disks (TEM20).

This happens at both low and high power, although they merge at high power and the problem is not that visible anymore.

I’ve aligned the mirrors perfectly and it does focus on a point seemingly correctly, but it doesn’t have as much power as my previous 80W tube. Before, I could cut a 5 mm thick acrylic with 23% power and 6 mm/s, while now it barely cuts it with 38% power and 6 mm/s.

Additionally, the engraving quality on acrylic is terrible: the scan lines are interrupted (even when engraving at 19%, while the minimum that produces an output is 8%), not all the details are visible in white… the laser is very unstable. But I am using the laser within specifications, it should work fine! Some examples:

With this new RECI laser (19%), look how unstable and flaky the lines are:

And with my previous laser, look how stable and perfect the lines are:

The RECI laser again:
image

Was supposed to be this:

image

And a comparison of engraving with my previous laser tube:

I reached out to Cloudray and they have been requesting multiple videos from me. I sent them one, they replied that it’s not sufficient, and asked for another. This cycle continued for 2 weeks, and they ended up requesting around 6 videos.

They insisted that I send videos testing the laser at maximum power (28 mA). I explained that at this power, the concentric rings are less visible due to merging, but they are most visible at 36% power. Eventually, I sent videos at both power levels. However, their response is that they don’t see any issue with the laser: “The engineers and manufacturers have carefully reviewed the several test videos you provided, and it is indeed impossible to determine the problem with the laser tube from them.”

I also argued that I engrave at 14% ~ 5-7mA, and the problem occurs at this current, not at 28mA. They repplied: “Low power can also lead to incomplete combustion of the light spot. You can adjust the working power to 40% -50%”.
I understand that the minimum power the laser produces an output, which is 8% for this laser and my current power supply (DY-13), the beam is unstable, but I am using between 12% and 17%!
I am using the laser within specifications, it should work across the normal range. Nobody runs the laser at 100% power nor engraves acrylic at 50% power with a 90W laser!

I’m feeling quite disheartened. I just want a good laser tube. The best scenario would be to get a replacement tube. If I request a refund, they will only reimburse the product price, not the shipping fee (which was €200) nor the customs fee (150€). I’m losing 350€ + the cost of not operating for 3 weeks (for now).

Some more images:
TEM20 in acrylic in 3D. 50% power and 1.5 seconds:

Circular beam shape. 20% power and 140 ms (I shot twice I think):

Please, can someone advise me what I can do in this situation?
Thanks in advance

Are the first photos directly from the output of the laser?

Tube has gone south… Check out this on laser resonance modes… You need to be in TEM00 mode, yours appears to be TEM01… :face_with_spiral_eyes:

This is the Gaussian power distribution…

The-distribution-Gaussian-of-laser-beam-profile-nb

But you are seeing it down the Z axes…

power-distrution-2d

A more descriptive version is here

I’ve seen this a number of times … every time I’ve seen it the tube was shot… I don’t know how an lps could cause this, but I suppose it’s possible.

How old is the tube? Not that it matters, just curious…

My 40W went from perfect to bad in the matter of a few days. I doubt you will ever be able to align it properly…

Good luck

:smile_cat:

If this is the output of the tube it is bad.
If this is a new tube cloudray should replace it!
A LPS will not cause this but an overheat can.

Someone at the Lightburn forum had a very similar issues and trouble with Cloud Ray… I don’t see how they could deny it’s an issue.

This can’t be caused by an lps? I’ve heard that it can, but never from what I’d consider a reliable source. I can’t see how, but am open to being educated.

:smile_cat:

Thank you for your answers

Yes

I just bought the tube, it did this from day one.

It can’t be a overheat from my side since I just bought it…

I hope so! But I think they started ignoring me…

I’ll try with other lps and I’ll post the result here.

After persistently requesting a replacement, Cloudray answered that in order to receive a replacement tube, I would need to pay an additional $200. But I don’t want to pay another $200 plus customs fees (€150) just because they sent me a defective tube and because RECI doesn’t want to admit that their product is faulty! Their decision was based on the reasoning in these messages:

  • “the RECI manufacturer does not agree to compensate for this laser tube because the provided video does not meet their after-sales requirements.”
  • “according to the video, engineers and manufacturers have determined that the output and spot of the laser tube are normal.”

Their stipulation was that I submit a video of the laser firing at maximum power (28mA) for 5-10 seconds on a 5mm acrylic sheet located at the tube’s output, in order to observe the resulting pattern.

Although the pattern at max. power resembled a somewhat conical shape as the one in @jkwilborn’s post, there was still a noticeable merged half ring that RECI seemed to overlook.

These conditions strike me as rather impractical for “after-sales requirements,” given that most engraving occurs at lower power levels and the issues arise during actual engraving operations.

This is outrageous; it almost seems like a conspiracy!

There is little doubt that this tube is bad.

My guess is that the folks you are communicating with do not understand what a mode shift is. The picture is clear but this condition probably does not occur that often with a new tube. They probably think the problem is down stream of the tube.

There are many things that can cause a faulty beam pattern but only one when positioned at the tube output.

I would try to get beyond the front lines of sales support and get to someone that is more knowledgeable.

Probably not a helpful editorial, more of a supporting your position.