Trotec Speedy 400 120 Watt - Any input or suggestions

[Robert Bonenfant]

Hello Everyone,

We are looking into adding another laser to our facility in a few weeks and wanted to check here before we placed an order.

We currently have three Camfive CMA4824 - USA Sales Office, Machines built in China, all 100-watt tubes. They are great machine but they require a lot of attention and parts have been going quickly (Warranty 1 year on each)
Repairs include: 2 new laser tubes (Lasted 5 months each) - New computer control (Newest machine 2 months old went bad)

I'm really looking for reliability with the next machine we purchase. But with the price tag on the speedy 400 being 3 times the cost of our current laser cutters it's hard to justify. We would be using the machine to cut display elements, sizes are around 12".

Would current user say it's worth the price increase ??
Does the laser tube last the recommend time? (Current laser Tube Say 10,000 hours haven't been able to hit half that)
Do you think 120 watts is good enough or shot for the moon with 150 + ( Speed is key, Faster we can cut the more product we make, Current run time is 2 minutes per item - 100-watt laser)
Are trotec tubes better than the China imports?
I'm headed to their office next week to view one in action.
Any input would be grateful - Doing my homework because it's more than we want to spend but I think it's the right way to go.

[Kev Williams]

I own 3 metal lasers, the oldest one now in my BIL's possession. It's 30 years old this year, I bought it used in 2002, the only money I've spent on it is for a belt, a stepper motor it didn't need, and a rebuilt tube it didn't need, both of those about 8 years ago. My BIL runs it about 10 hours a night. Still works like new. My LS900 is 13 years old, I had to put a rebuilt power supply in it about 6 years ago. No other money spent, not even belts yet. My GCC I bought from Gary what, year and a half ago. it's a 2005 model he bought new, I use it every day. I've spent 0 dollars on it so far.

And each one still has resale value.

IF you're lasering to make a living and NOT lasering as a hobby, it's hard NOT to justify buying a metal laser.... :)

[Keith Outten]

The new Trotec Speedy 300's (and above) laser engravers have a ceramic tube which is supposed to be far superior to both glass and metal tubes. They are very fast, if you purchase at least an 80 watt machine or better you can take advantage of the 150" per second speeds and the five "G" acceleration.

Over the course of laser engraving over 5,000 Corian ADA door signs with multiple machines the metrics worked out like this:

Epilog 35 watt - 25 minutes each
Xenetech 60 watt - 12 minutes each
Trotec Speedy 300 75 watt - 5 minutes each
Trotec Speedy 300 80 watt - 4 minutes each

I can't imagine how fast a Speedy 400 120 watt Trotec laser would engrave each of my ADA signs but I would love to know :)
.

[Bob Davis - Sturgis SD]

Hello Everyone,

We are looking into adding another laser to our facility in a few weeks and wanted to check here before we placed an order.

We currently have three Camfive CMA4824 - USA Sales Office, Machines built in China, all 100-watt tubes. They are great machine but they require a lot of attention and parts have been going quickly (Warranty 1 year on each)
Repairs include: 2 new laser tubes (Lasted 5 months each) - New computer control (Newest machine 2 months old went bad)

I'm really looking for reliability with the next machine we purchase. But with the price tag on the speedy 400 being 3 times the cost of our current laser cutters it's hard to justify. We would be using the machine to cut display elements, sizes are around 12".

Would current user say it's worth the price increase ??
Does the laser tube last the recommend time? (Current laser Tube Say 10,000 hours haven't been able to hit half that)
Do you think 120 watts is good enough or shot for the moon with 150 + ( Speed is key, Faster we can cut the more product we make, Current run time is 2 minutes per item - 100-watt laser)
Are trotec tubes better than the China imports?
I'm headed to their office next week to view one in action.
Any input would be grateful - Doing my homework because it's more than we want to spend but I think it's the right way to go.

Hello Robert,

If reliability is the most important consideration I suppose Trotec is your answer. If you are asking about glass tubes vs. ceramic tubes, Trotec wins that one also. I'm not familiar with your laser brand so I will make some assumptions and general statements. Trotec engraving will be substantially faster than what you generally see with a Chinese machine. Cutting, well I'm not so sure. If your running your glass tubes at max amperage that may account for the short life. I'm not aware of any problem running a ceramic tube at 100% all day long.

I suggest taking some of your cut files with you when you visit Trotec, then you can make a direct comparison. Or send me one or two files and I will tell you how long they take on a 100 watt Trotec. For cutting only, I suppose there is less justification to spend the extra money.

Bob

[Scott Shepherd]

I'd ask a different question. You mentioned you are going through a lot of parts. Do you consider the time working on machines lost profits? If so, then it does makes sense. However, in my experience over the years, many people don't consider the time spent working on machines as lost income. For example, if you are charging $100 per hour (use that number 1) because it's easy to do math with 2) it's a realistic number to use for laser work) and you spend all day working on a machine, then you've lost $800 in revenue. That only works if you have work on the machine and it's stopping production, or if your time working on it prevents you from working on billable work, but it many shops, that's the case. It doesn't take too long before that lost revenue adds up and starts to swing in the other direction, where it's actually costing you more to own the cheaper machines that it would if you bought the expensive one.

Having said that, I don't think any machine on the market is going to outrun 3 stand alone machines when it's just vector cutting.

One thing I know, when I walk in every day and turn the switch on the Trotec, it comes on and works. I probably shouldn't have posted that because something will probably happen now :)

I'd ask what your expectation is of the Trotec. Do you think it's going to out cut 3 machines in vector cutting? If so, that's not realistic.

[Mike Null]

My Trotec is in its 11th year. In 10+ years I've had one week of down time when I sent my tube out for rebuilding. I'm seriously considering trading up to a more powerful unit even though mine is working perfectly.

[Neville Stewart]

[QUOTE=One thing I know, when I walk in every day and turn the switch on the Trotec, it comes on and works. I probably shouldn't have posted that because something will probably happen now :)
.[/QUOTE]

: ) Shushhhh...

[Kev Williams]

I'd ask what your expectation is of the Trotec. Do you think it's going to out cut 3 machines in vector cutting? If so, that's not realistic.
Just want to point out that I do very little cutting with my lasers, 95% of my lasering is SS/Cermark or Rowmark signage. So my opinion was biased towards engraving. But Steve is correct about vector cutting, if that's the bulk of your business, 3 Chinese machines will run circles around 1 Trotec. Just do like Rodne does, and consider the whole machine as a 'consumable'. Buy what you need now, and save up for the next ones 2-3 years down the road...

That said, if you'll be doing ANY fair amount of basic raster engraving, get at least one Western machine...

[Bert Kemp]

From everything I've read over the years here if cutting is the main goal of the machine your not going to gain a whole lot of speed with any western machine. Personally I'd get a 15o watt co2 Chinese glass tube at a 3rd of the cost of one of the big 3.Rastering is a whole different story get a trotec

[Robert Bonenfant]

Thanks everyone for the help,
We will be moving forward with our purchase at the end of the month. Gonna take a trip to there office next week to see them in action. We will still keep our other machines, I just thinking buying trotec machines in the future will put us in the right direction to eventually replace all three machines with speedy models. Had two issues this week with one of my machines and my wasted time is starting to add up quickly.