Laser Chillers Maintenance

Instructions (for the 2 chillers)

• Spare filters (one per side) and red funnel found in ARGOS cabinet #1 (Level 3U).
• Clean rags and pig.
• Two 5-gal buckets to collect old glycol.
• Five gallons of 50/50 mixture of distilled water and glycol. Use brand new liquids (both water and glycol).
• 1/2 gallon distilled water.
• Phillips screwdriver (to open the cover to access filter).
• Rubber gloves.
• A 1/2-gal container (like juice bottle or jar) to transfer glycol from 5-gal container during refill.

1. Open the cabinet doors of the ARGOS rack located on the lower ARGOS platform.
2. Unplug the level meter hose from the upper quick connector. Bend the hose into a bucket and wait until the reservoir is empty. This may take up to 30 minutes. (See setup).
3. Remove the yellow cap and fill in one or two quarts clean water to rinse out deposits.
4. Remove the black cover on the left to get access to the ceramic filter. (See cover removed).
5. Rotate the transparent filter housing to open it. Be aware of remaining glycol spilling out. Prepare some rags or towels.
6. Remove ceramic filter from housing and dump out residual glycol. It will come out filled to the brim.
7. Clean housing.
8. Replace the filter insert.
9. Close the filter housing.
10. Make sure that the meter hose is back in place.
11. Refill the reservoir with the clean 50/50 water/glycol mix unitil metering hose indicator is between the min and max marks. In total, there should be approx. 9l/2.4gal of cooling mix in the system.
12. Log into dx-lalas or sx-lalas (using vnc), depending on which side has been refilled.
13. Open the Laser Controller GUI.
14. Press "POWER UP".
15. In any of the laser control electronics module (see here for reference), turn the key to the "0" position (it will be in the "2" position). Wait a few seconds and turn it to the "1" position. The "Warmup" LED will blink for a moment and then the "Error" LED will turn on. This is normal. It means that the cooling system is not ready yet. (See closeup of indicator LEDs).
16. Repeat the key switching above (from "1" to "0" and then back to "1") until the "Error" LED doesn't turn on anymore. It may blink (meaning "Warning").
17. Do the same for the other two modules to clear up the "Error" LED.
18. Warmup will keep blinking until becoming steady (i.e. "Ready"). Then turn the key to "2".
19. Do the same for the other modules.
20. System is ready for operation.

Maintenance History