Air compressor for laser cutter / engraver

kirill's picture
Submitted by kirill on Mon, 03/24/2014 - 11:12

All Laser Cutters need two additional devices which move air: blower which removes air / extracts smoke from machine and air compressor as a source for compressed air for so called air assist.

Why and How

Laser cuts by heat, very high heat focused in tight beam. Side products of high heat are smoke and fire, both are not welcomed addition, smoke disperses laser beam reducint it's efficienty and fire causes charring of material / edges and can even get out of control causing serious emergency.

Fire needs air to burn but it will also die if you blow too hard, think of a candle in the wind. This is essentialy what air assist is for: compressed air is extruded directly at the laser head in a very tight stream and is directed at the place where laser touches material.

Pressure and volume of air

Pressure of air is key variable for air assist efficienty, in our shop we found out that optimal value is between 2 and 3.5 bar (31-50psi).

To achieve required pressure compressor needs to push certain volume of air through air assist opening, exact volume depends on size of the opening and desired pressure. High quality laser cutter heads have small and finely tuned openings while cheaper chinese cutters just blow in general direction via large holes.

Proper compressor

When choosing compressor you need to consider if it will be able to constantly provide desired pressure and volume of air. Small airbrush compressors small compressors boast impressive pressure figures but really poor flow rates sufficient only for airbrush pistols. Even if small compressor would be able to push enough air it will likely overheat in couple of minutes.

Our laser cutter came with small membrane pump (Smallest on the picture), I do not know what specifications it has but stream of air was very weak. It is sufficient if all you want to do is engrave, although even then we got substantial smoke traces around engraved picture.

Second unit we got was AS-48A compressor, it was rated for volume of ~2.4cfm and had a 1 gallon tank which can be filled to 58 PSI. It managed to give us constant 1 bar (14 PSI) of pressure, but it had to run all the time and overheat badly within 5 minutes.

Third and current compressor we got was 6cfm rated belt driven unit with 13 gallon tank which is filled to ~100psi. With this unit we can run at constant ~2bar (31psi) without fear of overheating since compressor engine is not on all the time. Using reserve air in tank we can also push up to 3.5bar (50psi) for short jobs.

The best setup in my opinion would be compressor rated to >6cfm, large 70+ gallons tank rated to 10bar (140psi) and software air control via solenoid valve.

Air Quality

Air which comes out of Air Assist nozzles should be as clean as possible, warer and oil vapors should be removed from it. Proper inline air filers are must have.

Noise

When choosing compressor, please do consider noise, cheap direct driven compressors are terribly noisy! It is one thing to hear noise in the shop and another to have that ratchet around you all the time. Our general advise: Choose belt driven units, they run at lower RPMs and cause much less noise. Our compressor has noise rate of 68dba, we can work without ear plugs when it runs.

Automating air flow

Good laser controller boards come with option to control air flow, it is basically a relays head which is supposed to trigger a solenoid valve when needed (controlled by software), our Ruida controller has this head, we plan to make use of it soon and document it here.

Useful links

 

Tags: 
workshop
laser
air

13 Comments

Anonymous

CP from The Net... (not verified)

on

Fri, 10/30/2015 - 10:14

Hi Kirill, thank yo. This article gave just the information I needed. I too have that noisy small compressor. Tonight I'm going to pick up a 'new' second hand oldie compressor that's seems to be slightly bigger than the middel one on your picture. According to the seller it goes to 8bar, so even if he exaggerated it should be enough and a lot better than that small one I have now. Petty I read you article after making the second hand deal ;-)

There is a question I have and the answer I haven't found on the web. Larger laser cutters add oxygen to be able to easily cut through thick and hard materials. As I understood from someone at a fablab the oxygen provides the needed for a higher burning temperature at the laser's contact point to the material. Something like adding a blower to a coal fire at the blacksmith. That explanation made sence to me for I've played a lot with speeding up the barbecue by using air.

This information gave me the thought that adding more air (higher compressor power) to the air nozzle and bringing a smaller air vent closer to the material could/should give better cutting results and perhaps even higher performance in thickness. Since you've been experimenting more than I have; I would like to ask you if this theory could be right? Or is this just wishfull thinking :-)

kirill's picture

kirill

on

Wed, 03/02/2016 - 22:38

Hi CP, I am sorry for slow reply, was not on the site for months.
I have recently upgraded my compressor to 5HP unit and I did some tests with 'extreme' pressures, I tried 60, 70 and even 100PSI. And the difference was not really noticable compared to 'standard' 30-50 PSIs.

So, don't worry be happy, if you can sustain at least 30pst then you are fine!

Cheers

Anonymous

Alvin (not verified)

on

Mon, 08/12/2019 - 08:44

Hi!

May we know what are you cutting with your laser cutter? What improvements was noticed with the "stronger" air assist?

Thanks in advance!

Anonymous

Mike (not verified)

on

Mon, 08/17/2020 - 13:25

Found this article while looking for information on the best amount of air flow for my 100W Laser. The aquarium pump that shipped with the laser, when measured only produced 7 PSI.

Connecting my larger compressor at 25 PSI resulted in much cleaner cuts.
So permanent upgrade is now in progress.

Thanks for the article and insights.

Anonymous

rcarwalwelregro... (not verified)

on

Mon, 03/28/2022 - 22:09

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Anonymous

rcarwalwelregro... (not verified)

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Mon, 03/28/2022 - 22:09

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rcraawlwleregro... (not verified)

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Fri, 04/01/2022 - 03:59

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