How to clean the laser lens and mirrors?

Optics - focusing lenses/mirrors are critical for cutting and engraving results.

To ensure the quality of the laser engraving or cutting, you should check and clean the lens and mirrors regularly.

Your laser cutter, which uses mirrors and lenses to reflect and focus the laser beam onto the workpiece, is just as prone to distortion and degradation as a TV picture—but unlike a TV picture, a laser beam is hot and intense. Once you set up your laser engraver and start laser cutting various materials, the laser beam vaporizes your workpiece, releasing airborne solids, fumes and other gases into the air. These particles can settle on the optics, and the next time you fire a laser, these contaminants can burn into the surfaces and permanently damage them.

When a laser beam hits a mirror, if the mirror is very clean, nearly all of the beam's energy is reflected along one path. However, if debris is present, it can cause the beam to shatter, weakening the beam. A weakened beam not only affects the quality of cutting and engraving, but the mirror heats up and absorbs the infrared energy in the beam. This allows the dirt to embed itself in the surface of the mirror or lens and eventually cause it to crack.

So you can see - keeping mirrors and lenses perfectly clean is critical to maintaining the performance of your laser cutting machine and prolonging the life of your laser mirrors and laser focusing lenses.