fiber laser

[Kevin C. Johnson]

I'm looking into a fiber laser for industrial applications.
I have seen very little other then manufacturers claims.
I would be using it for metal tagging
would like to hear some opinions

[Dan Hintz]

We need a lot more info before we can help you. What do you want to do, how fast do you need to do it, what size items are you trying to work with, what's your budget, etc.

[Dave Sheldrake]

We need a lot more info before we can help you. What do you want to do, how fast do you need to do it, what size items are you trying to work with, what's your budget, etc.

yup, same as Dan :) lots more info please :)

cheers

Dave

[Joe Hillmann]

Are you thinking of a flatbed fiber or a galvo? A flat bed allows you to do a much larger area, a galvo does a small area (from 2inches square up to 8inches square) but for some products can be much faster than a flat bed.

If you are looking at a flat bed, universal and epilog both make a machine that is co2 and fiber in one machine.

[Mark E Wilson]

I'm also looking for a fiber. Galvo would work fine for me as most of the stuff I want to use it on is smaller. Firearms, firearm components, and knives. LaserStar (US) and Weike (Chinese) are the two I have had the most info from so far. Huge price difference. LaserStar is currently in use in at least one large gun manufacturer, and required for their suppliers to use. I know the sweetness of a low price does't last as long as the bitterness of pour quality or support. I also know higher price doesn't always mean better quality. I tried getting a quote for a other Chinese made laser from a US rep with no response. Doesn't give me warm fuzzies. I don't want a quarter priced paper weight. I want a good machine with eve better tech support.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Hiya Mark,

I'll email you some good suppliers, to be honest anything mission critical that MUST be working no matter what and 110% support I'd go with a Western made machine. If you can afford the odd fiddle or sporadic support then eastern is a great way to save money.

cheers

Dave

[Zhiyue Sun]

Our fire laser will arrive at our Canadian warehouse in 7 days. The working table is 175mm*175mm, fire laser is 20W. Although our fibre marking machine is from China, Our fire laser is from German, the life time is more than 10,0000 hours. it can make precision product very well.

We knew Weike laser too, their fibre laser is made in China not German. But their price is low, if you like cheap product, you can contact them.


Anna-peakofglass






I'm looking into a fiber laser for industrial applications.
I have seen very little other then manufacturers claims.
I would be using it for metal tagging
would like to hear some opinions

[Kevin C. Johnson]

We need a lot more info before we can help you. What do you want to do, how fast do you need to do it, what size items are you trying to work with, what's your budget, etc.
my budget 20,000 to mid-20,000s.
We already have a established business making electrical/industrial tagging, pushbutton tags..all tags are cut out of sheet stock with 50 W lasers. The beds that we have now are 32 x 18.

We would need beds of comparable size to cut and Mark aluminum tags. Is my thought.T

thank you

[Dave Sheldrake]

Hiya Kev,

Cutting with a Galvo requires massive power (somewhere about 25x the budget+) but a 50 watt gantry machine will be good, sadly it's not going to engrave very quickly (compared to a Galvo) so maybe two machines may be the way to go?

a 32x18 moving bed Galvo is available from Vytek in Fiber but huge money! past that you are stuck with smaller non moving beds around 300 x 300 max working area.(with 200 x 200 of that being high quality)

It may not sound like much of a requirement but cutting and marking aluminium of all metals at good speeds is expensive....usually very.

cheers

Dave

[Joe Hillmann]

You don't say where you are located but have you contacted any laser reps yet? That way you can see the lasers in action(assuming you are buying from a US based supplier).

Can you buy the tags already cut? That way all you are doing is marking them?

My 50 watt galvo yag with a lens that allows an 8" diameter engraving area could maybe cut through aluminum foil if I really really tried. If you wan't a glavo and a large engraving area you could buy/build an xy table that would allow you to go as large as you want.

Maybe Bruce Boone or Matthew Knott will chime in, they both have experience with yag/ fiber cutting lasers.

[Dan Hintz]

my budget 20,000 to mid-20,000s.
We already have a established business making electrical/industrial tagging, pushbutton tags..all tags are cut out of sheet stock with 50 W lasers. The beds that we have now are 32 x 18.

We would need beds of comparable size to cut and Mark aluminum tags. Is my thought.T

thank you

You don't say what thickness, but even so, you're much better off having the tags stamped out, then using a galvo to engrave. With your price point, the best you're going to get is a Chinese unit (though at that price you can get a fairly powerful unit, 70-100W). A "western" 50W cartridge alone will be $20k+, and that doesn't include the galvo itself, just the laser. As the other guys mentioned, you're not going to be cutting tags with 50W... unless you're happy with one tag every 1-2 hours. I would look at a galvo setup that has two tables "lazy Susan" style... while one table of tags is being engraved, you're loading up the next table. Once done, swap tables and repeat. You should be able to get that for mid-20's from a Chinese company without issue.

[matthew knott]

Cant add much to the advise given really,its all good!! you wont get a 50-70 watt fiber laser (cheap) from china but you can get a YAG (diode or lamp pumped) and they all do a similar job. Personally with your budget i would aim for a 20 watt fiber laser, be very wary of the '10,0000 hours' claims, they are a theoretical MTB failure for the pump diodes in the laser. Simple fact is the manufacturers only offer a 2-3 year warranty, we have just had a Fiber unit go down, highest quality most expensive manufacturer and its cost us $3000 to get if fixed (only run for 2500 hours) but 3 years old.
Also worth pointing out that a western co2 compaired to a Chinese co2 is nothing like comparing a western fiber to a Chinese fiber, the Chinese fiber is way closer on the quality and performance to a western!

[Mark E Wilson]

Thanks Dave. Weike and Rabbit were a couple of your recommendations. I couldn't get the Rabbit rep in the US to reply to any of my inquiries. Weike sends emails back and forth almost daily, ready for me to cut a check.

Mark

[Dave Sheldrake]

The Weikes are good Mark, the 20 watt system they do is great (and reasonable price) my only reservation would be shipping, believe me the daily emails do slow down a bit (shall we say) once you have the machine but in general the girls are good at getting stuff done. Your experience with the ULS at least gives you a good grounding in laser tech in general even if not at the 1064 wavelength it will still be useful. A Fiber for anybody new to lasers all together for an import would likely be much much more of a problem. As Matt was saying, the differences in Chinese to Western Galvo's/Fibers/YAG's is a lot less than gantry machines but they are still complex bits of kit no matter where they come from.

I'll dig out a list of options for you to explore ;)

cheers

Dave

[Bruce Boone]

My 80 watt YAG will get through about .010" of titanium with enough passes, maybe about 150 passes, but It takes a long time. I have a very short focal length lens to keep things tight and maximum burn, so my burn area is less than 2" square. It's a well made machine, but seriously expensive. My fiber is a quasi continuous mode, and is 450 watts continuous and 4500 watts pulsed. It is made more for cutting although I have done some engraving. The issue is that it makes molten metal that has to be evacuated whereas the YAG has pulses so powerful that it vaporizes the material. The fiber laser can cut through over 1/4" of titanium.

[Mark E Wilson]

So, I'm leaning hard towards a Weike. They use SamLight. How does this compare to say Universal's print driver. I have seen comments posted about different scan directions and "polishing" an engraving. I like being able to kick the tires and test drive something, which has me nervous about the Weike.

[Dan Hintz]

So, I'm leaning hard towards a Weike. They use SamLight. How does this compare to say Universal's print driver.

Comparing Chinese drivers to western drivers is akin to comparing a Yugo to a Ferrari... they'll both get you there, but the Ferrari is significantly more enjoyable.

[matthew knott]

Samlight is a German software package made by SCAPS, never used it but it has a good rep, ask for a demo version of the software then have a play! Fiber lasers tent not to use the 'print driver' technique as it doesn't offer as much control as having a properly written bit of software specifically designed to run the machines.