Looking to buy a Galvo Fiber

[carl birkin]

So we are looking towards buying a Galvo Fiber laser with a small marking area, it doesn't need to have a larger area than about 120x120 to be honest, that would be more than adequate.

Would love to know peoples recommendations and more importantly who not to buy from, I've been searching round and nearly went for a Full Spectrum Galvo but after some of the nightmare stories on here they don't inspire me with confidence.

The Wisely from China was interesting with the coloured laser but as with all China stuff it comes with serious risk due to lack of back up

Halo impresses me as do lots of companies but I'm trying hard to keep the cost down £8,000 to £17,000 if possible, any and all advice would be thank fully received.

[matthew knott]

Hi Carl, i will try to give you impartial advise but as a director of one of the company's you mention I obviously have a natural bias.
Firstly beware of importing a machine that is not CE approved and meets the correct safety standards, the odds of getting caught are very small, but in theory a machine could be impounded if customs decide to pick on it. Also the colour marking although pretty and a great for showing off the capabilities of a fibre laser has very limited commercial applications. The slightest change in material or finish or even atmospheric conditions can make all your settings obsolete. Thats why no one (as far as I'm aware) offers this as a service, you just cant control what colour you will get.
If you want to try colours you really need a laser with adjustable pulse width, but these do cost more and if you don't need the option then i would advise against it.
You have quite a large range on your budget, that's a good thing as it gives you some choice, at £8k you will have to import from china, there will be additional costs with this like shipping and duty and obviously all the other associated pit falls. At £17k you wont be able to afford anything from Rofin or Trumpf but to be honest you would not gain much from these, other than the safety net of buying from a huge multi-national company.
Best advice would be go and try some machines out, use them yourself don't just let the sales guys bamboozle with pre-set demos, make sure you take your artwork and your product. All fibre/Galvo lasers are very close in performance, make sure you are happy with the people you are purchasing from and that you can form a relationship with them, after-sales service is what you paying for with a UK company, you need to be able to pick up the phone and get an answer to your question straight away, else you might as well buy from China and save some money.
Also make sure you can upgrade your machine if needed, like rotary axis of a larger lens unless you're 100% sure you will never need them.
Hope this helps a bit, any questions don't hesitate to ask, always happy to chat on the phone even if you don't want one of our machines.
All the best
Matt

[Gary Hair]

Look back through some of my posts and you'll get more info - I bought a G Weike, 30 watt galvo fiber and it has worked exceptionally well for me. There is a learning curve and the mfg isn't really able to help, either language barriers or lack of knowledge, but either way I did most of the learning on my own. It was well within your range, closer to the bottom than the top. If you could get away with 10 or 20 watts instead of 30 like I did, you could easily get it for not much more than your bottom number.