Universal Laser Systems M-360 Safety, Installation, Operation, And Basic Maintenance Manual page 24

Focus Tool Method
Place your material into the upper left corner of the
engraving field against the rulers. Visually make sure that
the height of the material will not interfere with the focus
carriage when it moves over the material. While either the
READY or FILE DISPLAY menu is displayed, press the Z
button.
The focus carriage will move to the upper left corner of the
engraving area. Use the MOTION CONTROL buttons to
position the focus carriage elsewhere if your material is not
positioned at (1,1). You can move the Z-axis Table up or
down, at a fast rate, by pressing once or holding down
either the UP or DOWN arrow button while the display
cursor is positioned on top of the first digit to the right of
the decimal point digit. To move the table slowly, press
the SELECT button to bring the cursor over to the
rightmost digit and again use the UP or DOWN button.
You should practice moving the table up and down before
using the focus tool.
Place the focus tool (4) on top of the material (1) and
position the focus carriage (3) directly above it. Raise or
lower the table so that the flat edge (5) the tool rests
against the front side of the focus carriage. Slowly raise
the table until you observe the tool either tilting or sliding
away from the focus carriage. This will occur when the
bottom edge of the focus carriage meets with the top of the
beveled edge (6) of the focus tool. The objective is to stop
moving the table at the point where the tool just starts to
move or tilt. The focal length (7) distance should be
approximately the length (in inches) engraved on the front
side of the focus carriage. The standard and most common lens to use is the 2.0-inch focal length lens.
Press the Z or the ESCAPE button to move the focus carriage back to the home position.
WARNING: To avoid damage to the focus lens, avoid positioning the focus tool underneath
the focus carriage.
Sometimes it is desirable to be slightly out of focus when engraving or cutting. It widens the
beam at the surface of the material to soften the image or create a wider cut line.
WARNING: DO NOT engrave or cut too far out of focus, as this can be a potential fire
hazard. A maximum of .05 inches above or below precise focus should be the absolute limit.
F rom a physics point of view, there is no difference between raising the Z-axis table a specified distance
from the focal point and lowering the table the same distance from the focal point. However, from an
applications point of view, we recommend lowering the Z-axis table when intentionally RASTER
ENGRAVING out of focus and raising the Z-axis table when intentionally VECTOR CUTTING out of
focus.
SYSTEM OPERATION
Section 3-6
3
6
5
2
7
1) Material
2) X-axis Rail
3) Focus Carriage
4) Focus Tool
5) Flat Edge
6) Top of Beveled Edge
7) Focal Length
4
1