A laser marking system that quits in the middle of a production run creates a problem no spec sheet solves. You need someone who answers the phone, knows the machine, and can work through it with your maintenance team while the operator is standing there waiting. TJS has done that since 1980, on our own systems and on equipment built by other manufacturers, including systems the original builder walked away from years ago. The note below came from a maintenance supervisor after one of those calls. What follows explains the service work behind it, and when repairing an aging system stops being the right call.
Quick Answer
A laser marking system that quits in the middle of a production run creates a problem no spec sheet solves. You need someone who answers the phone, knows the machine, and can work through it with your maintenance team while the operator is standing there waiting. TJS has done that since 1980, on our own systems and on equipment built by other manufacturers, including systems the original builder walked away from years ago.
TJS technical support starts with a live conversation between your maintenance person and a TJS technician who has worked on that class of machine. We diagnose over the phone first, walk through the control script and the marking file with the operator, and send parts or a field technician when the problem calls for it. Most laser marking faults get resolved without anyone leaving the building.
The call behind this note involved a Control Laser Script running Prolase XP+ software, controlling a multi-axis X/Y table and a programmable Z-axis. That is a system with several places for a fault to hide. The marking program, the axis parameters, the focus position, the interlocks, and the laser itself all have to agree before a part gets marked correctly. Sorting that out means asking a lot of questions and having the person on the other end willing to ask a lot back.
I wanted you to know that your technician was a huge help for me. He helped me to get my laser engraver back up and running, and he did it with a smile. I pestered him mercilessly and he took it all in stride!
I wanted to thank you and him for a job well done, every time I speak with someone from TJS Lasers I become a little happier with my decision to use you instead of that other laser company up the street. That was one of the smartest things I have done. Keep up the good work.
Dan
Maintenance Supervisor
Loyalty in this business gets earned on the bad days. TJS built the service and repair side of the company first. The product line came out of what we learned doing it.
TJS services, repairs, and supports industrial laser marking systems from most manufacturers, including flash lamp, diode pump, CO2, and fiber systems that are out of production or no longer covered by the company that built them. Our technical staff carries more than 140 years of combined laser experience, and we have worked on this equipment since 1980, across shops of every size and condition.
Orphaned equipment is common in laser marking. Builders get acquired, product lines get discontinued, and the engineers who knew the control architecture retire. What is left on your floor is a machine that still marks good parts and a phone number that no longer connects to anyone who can help. We see systems from builders that stopped supporting them a decade ago, running production every shift, held together by one maintenance supervisor who learned the machine the hard way.
That situation changes what a service call is worth. What you get on the phone is access to people who have had that cabinet open before and remember what sits behind the panel.
Yes. TJS supports Prolase XP, Prolase XP+, and Prolase 10 marking software, along with the motion that runs underneath it: programmable Z-axis focus, X/Y tables, rotary indexers, conveyors, and multi-axis scripting. Support covers the marking file, the axis parameters, and the script logic that ties them together, and most of it happens by phone with your technician standing at the machine.
Software is where a surprising share of laser marking problems live. A part comes out shallow, the laser gets blamed, and the cause turns out to be a Z-axis position that drifted after a fixture change or a script step that never got saved. Diagnosing that over the phone takes someone who can read the script and picture the machine at the same time.
Prolase 10 is the Windows control software that runs every current Endeavor J-Series and Endeavor RETRO system we build. Because our technicians work in it daily on new systems, they carry that same fluency into support calls on older Prolase installations.
TJS supplies consumables and replacement parts for flash lamp, diode pump, and CO2 laser systems, and repairs them both in the field and in our shop. What is available depends on the platform and the age of the components. Some parts are still in production. Others we source, rebuild, or substitute with an equivalent that fits the existing machine.
Flash lamps, optics, and standard consumables are usually straightforward. The harder items are the ones nobody made after 2008: pump chambers, obsolete controller boards, ISA-bus cards, chiller assemblies, and the industrial PCs running operating systems that no longer receive updates. When a customer has three of those failure points in one machine, the parts conversation turns into a different conversation.
We will tell you when a repair is worth doing and when it is money spent to delay a decision. Forty-plus years of repairing this equipment gives us a fairly accurate sense of which machines have another five years in them.
A retrofit makes sense when the operating cost and downtime of the existing laser exceed what a new laser source and controls would cost to install in the same workstation. The common triggers are repeated flash lamp or diode replacement, chiller failures, parts that take weeks to source, and a machine that can no longer hold the mark quality the current job requires.
The economics are usually clearer than people expect. A flash lamp pumped Nd:YAG system consumes 230VAC three-phase power, needs water cooling, and carries a consumable replacement cycle. A fiber laser source runs on 120VAC, is air-cooled, and has no consumable pump source to replace. The utility and maintenance difference shows up on the first year's numbers.
Speed changes too, and sometimes dramatically. In tool and die work, we have seen marking jobs that ran more than three hours on an older system come down to under three minutes on a fiber laser. That kind of cycle time change alters what you can quote and how fast the equipment pays for itself.
A retrofit does not have to mean a new workstation. The enclosure, the table, the fixtures, the conveyor, and the automation around the laser are often the most expensive and most customized parts of the cell, and on a machine with a failing laser they are usually still fine.
The Endeavor RETRO replaces the laser source and the controls inside your existing workstation and leaves the rest of the cell in place. It is designed as a drop-in replacement for flash lamp, diode pump, CO2, and other legacy laser systems, so the fixtures, enclosure, tables, conveyors, and automation you already own keep working. RETRO systems are air-cooled, run on 120VAC, and are built in the United States.
RETRO is an OEM laser in the plain sense of the term. It gets designed into a new automation cell, built into an OEM product, or dropped onto an existing production line. The small footprint and flexible interface let it mount on conveyors, indexers, and part processing infrastructure that was never built with it in mind. We designed it that way because we spent three decades retrofitting other companies' lasers into machines that were never meant to accept them.
RETRO is available in 20W, 30W, 50W, 70W, 100W, and 200W MOPA versions, with a range of marking field and beam spot sizes, all running Prolase 10. Every unit carries a three year limited warranty on the fiber laser. Since we introduced the Endeavor line in 2014, our fiber lasers have not had a field failure.
If your system is still repairable, we will repair it. If it is at the end of its useful life, RETRO is the path that keeps the rest of your investment intact. Either way, the same technicians answer the phone.
Does TJS service laser systems it did not build?
Yes. TJS has serviced and repaired laser systems from most major manufacturers since 1980, including flash lamp, diode pump, CO2, and fiber systems. Many of the machines we support are out of production or no longer covered by the original builder. Age and brand matter less than whether the platform is still practical to keep running.
How fast can TJS respond when a laser marking system goes down?
Phone support starts the same day in most cases, and a large share of faults get diagnosed and corrected on that first call. When a problem needs parts or hands on the machine, we schedule shipment or a field visit based on the part availability and how far the system is from our technicians. Downtime cost drives the priority.
Is it cheaper to repair an old laser or retrofit it with a fiber laser?
Repair is cheaper on a single event. Retrofit is usually cheaper across two or three years once flash lamps, diode bars, chiller service, three-phase power, and downtime are counted. The decision point is when the machine starts failing repeatedly or when parts get hard to source. We will give you an honest read on which side your system is on.
Can I keep my existing workstation if I replace the laser?
In most cases, yes. The Endeavor RETRO replaces the laser and controls while your enclosure, table, fixtures, conveyor, and automation stay in service. That is the reason RETRO exists. The workstation and the tooling around it usually cost more and carry more customization than the laser source itself.
Does TJS support Prolase XP and older marking software?
Yes. We support Prolase XP, XP+, and Prolase 10, along with the multi-axis motion control that runs with them, including programmable Z-axis focus and X/Y tables. Our technicians work in Prolase daily on current Endeavor systems, which is why they can read an older script and picture what the machine is doing.
What kind of warranty comes with an Endeavor RETRO retrofit?
Every Endeavor RETRO carries a three year limited warranty on the fiber laser. The fiber source requires no consumable replacement, which removes the flash lamp and diode bar replacement cycle from your maintenance schedule entirely. Systems are designed, manufactured, and assembled in the United States, and our technical support group sits in the same building.
If your laser marking system is down, giving you trouble, or getting expensive to keep alive, call and describe what it is doing. We will tell you whether it is a repair, a parts problem, or a machine that has earned its retirement. Contact TJS Lasers or request a quote on an Endeavor RETRO retrofit.