So ARA attendees, Universals next big thing is...?

[Sean Coyne]

I know quite a few of you folks are at the ARA show in Vegas where Universal is supposedly debuting the next big thing in laser production. I have been waiting with baited breath to hear about this. Googling "universals next big thing" is far too ambiguous for reliable information. The Creek is my only source of information and Im dying to know. So creekers whats the hold up? What do we know so far?

[David Somers]

I agree Sean! My doctor has prescribed heavy meds to keep me calm until we hear. The suspense......! Tremble.....Quiver!!! <grin>

Seriously....hope you all are having fun in Vegas. And remember, while what goes on in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas, that doesn't apply to Universal's "Next Big Thing" announcement.

[Jason Hilton]

If Universal is smart (and I think they are) they'll send an e-mail after the announcement detailing the announcement. Looking forward to finding out too, although the only thing they can announce that would pull me away from my decision to buy a trotec would be quartering their prices.

[Tim Bateson]

There's a new duel machine. I think CO2 & Fiber - big machine. Also a Massive sized machine laser that runs about 500 watts.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Hope that's not it Tim or it's just stuff others have been doing for years.

cheers

Dave

[Gary Hair]

There's a new duel machine. I think CO2 & Fiber - big machine. Also a Massive sized machine laser that runs about 500 watts.

Do you have to have two so they fight to the death?

[Scott Shepherd]

Hope that's not it Tim or it's just stuff others have been doing for years.

cheers

Dave

Dave, if that's it, and IF I understood something I saw before, then it is big for them. There was a video demonstration of their combo machine on their website some time ago. It was 2 cartridges, 1 C02 and 1 fiber. They made a big deal about how you could now mark and cut various materials. Then they showed it in action and the guy actually stopped the job after fiber marking it and physically swapped out the tube to the C02, and then vector cut the part. I was thinking "this has to be a prank". There's no way you have to physically swap the tubes out every single time. That's insane. I honestly thought I wasn't seeing it right.

So if they now have 1 machine that doesn't need to have the tubes swapped, then it probably did excite them.

Universal is a solid company with solid machines. You don't hear too many stories about them putting out things that have a lot of bugs in them. They tend to get it right from the start, so whatever it is, it's probably really well done.

I was hoping the next big thing would have been high speed servo motors ;) Sorry, no prize for me. Still low speed steppers.

[Guy Hilliard]

If it's a CO2/Fiber resident at the same time then it's been done already (Trotec FLEXX). If it's a single tube that can be tuned from 10.6microns to 9.4microns that would be cool and useful.

[Tim Bateson]

I can't emphasize enough how big both these machines are. Neither would likely fit through my double doors into my basement. These are very big machines.

[Dave Sheldrake]

I know what you mean Scotty, I just hoped it would be something ground breaking but the big manufacturers are the ones likely to bring that sort of thing out. Problem with super speed machines is the need for the power to go with it, 600+mm per second move rates are great if you have 2Kw to go with it but the upper limit on *affordable* sources seems to be the limiting factor. Even with great move rates for engraving they still won't keep up with high end 12,000mm per second Galvo's (that cost considerably less).

By choice I'd like to see a combination laser/router with some decent performance figures at a sensible price.

cheers

Dave

ps: so are these Tim and have been around a while

283439

[Gary Hair]

By choice I'd like to see a combination laser/router with some decent performance figures at a sensible price.

I don't think that's very likely. The dust and contaminants from the router would wreak havoc on the laser. That's why my cnc router sits in the garage and the laser is in the house.

[Mark Sipes]

Dave "By choice I'd like to see a combination laser/router with some decent performance figures at a sensible price."



Xenetech has gotten very close to the laser/rotary system

http://www.xenetech.com/images/productpromobar_1218.jpg

[Don Corbeil]

I saw their new product at the show today.
As Tim emphasized, it is massive, now called their XLS series. High end equipment: $85K - $130K I believe. They call it a multiwave hybrid, able to use up to 3 types of wavelengths (really two CO2 wavelengths and a fiber) on a single pass, no swapping, on the fly. It can be configured up to 500W CO2 with dual 250W tubes. It also has a color touch screen control.
I've attached a few photos that may help illustrate/explain it a little better.
283456283455283457

The show is good, having a great time here, lots to see :D

[Dave Sheldrake]

Cheers Mark, that looks rather nice. I just like the idea of a router combo Gary, highly impractical but I can dream :)

Humm multiwave....meh, very expensive and in the price point of second hand small industrials of higher power. Would be interesting to see how they have achieved it,likely 3 resonators from looking at the literature rather than a tune-able source. I can't really see the application of having hot swapping resonators, novel idea but why have sources so far apart? CO2 has it's uses as does Fiber but having them combined in a relatively low power package? I'm sure somebody has organic and metal materials in one unit somewhere but it's rather rare I would think.

cheers

Dave

[Jeff Woodcock]

I just like the idea of a router combo Gary, highly impractical but I can dream :)
Dave

That would be reinventing our wheel. We can actually 3D spindle engrave a relief in wood and then laser engrave a photo onto it with shades afterwards with the same machine. :)

Jeff

[Sean Coyne]

I'm sure somebody has organic and metal materials in one unit somewhere but it's rather rare I would think.

I agree Dave. The coworkers and I were trying to think of applications for this, that couldnt be achieved on two separate machines. Im sure they are out there but it was hard to think of any.

[Rodne Gold]

http://www.eurolaser.tv/index.php?id=23&L=tkkijqykakkutyl&tx_publicvideo_publicvideo%5Bcategory%5D=7&tx_publicvideo_publicvideo%5Bnmachining%5D=Machini ng%3ARouting&cHash=d9870591fc0f28fa1992bbca4d787e77&tx_publicvideo_publicvideo%5Buid%5D=236&tx_publicvideo_publicvideo%5Baction%5D=show&tx_publicvideo_publicvideo%5Bcontroller%5D=Publicv ideo

283489

[matthew knott]

I guess if you limited on space it might be handy to have one BIG laser that does everything, but the flexx is pretty much the same thing, personally i would rather have 2 separate lasers, that way at least if one breaks you can use the other, plus you can do 2 jobs at once. CO2's are good on pretty much everything Fibers aren't so you would really struggle to find a use for on the fly changes (no doubt someone will but its going to be rare). For fun this year im going to convert a Chinese CO2 to a fiber as i have a spare 20watt fiber source and all optics to create a cheap large format fiber, but i cant even see that getting much use, Galvos much better for fibers in most cases, large format you would probably be better with print or chemical etch !!
Do like the look of the Eurolaser, now that would be a useful tool

[John Champlain]

Wow, as soon as I finish my tunnel into Ft. Knox I'll see about getting one of those.:)
John

[Kev Williams]

...personally i would rather have 2 separate lasers, that way at least if one breaks you can use the other, plus you can do 2 jobs at once.
Bingo! Those are the exact reasons I have so many machines! First, so I can do more than one job at once! I love it when the planets align and I can get 8 or 9 machines running jobs at the same time! Second, it's nice to have some backup machines. One of the reasons I decided to buy the Triumph was in case something goes wrong with the other machines! (knock on my head).

I'd love a fiber laser, but I'd rather it be its own machine...

[Dave Sheldrake]

I'm with you on that Matt, even on space somebody who can rack up $140,000 is likely to be able to get some more space if needed. I'd say the new ULS is a white elephant in the living room, nice proof of concept but not much else. I'd have the 2m x 3m Chinese 600 watt Fiber at a 1/3rd of that price and just use it to murder out non critical parts, then buy a Glavo and a 200 watt Glass Tube Gantry to go with it and still have enough left out of the budget to get a new car.

A 50 watt max fiber Gantry.....not enough power to cut anything sensible and too slow to be a good marker.A bit of fun but at that price, expensive fun.

I asked my guys yesterday as well Sean, none of them could remember a job we have done in the last 12 years that would benefit from the new ULS.

cheers

Dave

[Nicolas Silva]

$85k+? I'm out.

[Kev Williams]

Hmm. Maybe the NEXT next big thing from ULS will be a half-price sale...

[Dave Sheldrake]

A profiling Z axis (follow head) would be my choice if I could have anything fitted to a basic laser.

cheers

Dave

[Jeff Woodcock]

That is what we are able to do with our CNC router. The Z axis goes up and down to follow the contours of the 3D spindle engraving to maintain the laser diodes focal point on the surface of the material's profile.

It takes two different images to generate two different gcode files and then we combine them to accomplish this. Z axis moves from a heightmap greyscale image from the 3D spindle engraving file and then from the original image that the heightmap was created from, the A axis moves to shade the profile with an analog modulated laser diode. We end up with a X, Y, Z and A on each line in the gcode file to run in Mach3.

Jeff