Hello to everyone!

[Paul Phillips]

I'm a new member and I really am impressed with the quality of people in this community as well as the quality of information, what a gold mine.
I am looking to purchase a new laser and have already spent many hours this last week reading through the archives. I've learned more in the last several days reading archives here than anywhere else I've found. I wish I had found this years ago!
I run the routing/engraving department for a growing sign co. and we are looking to increase our productivity in ADA signs by complimenting our current method of routing shapes on the CNC machine and transferring them to the engraver for braille and tactile letters. I run two Multicam M series CNC routers and a New Hermes IS8000 rotary engraver with an auto raster attachment which works great for creating braille but, the struggle for me has been to get clean consistent results with the gravotac/rowmark .032 engravers plastic with adhesive on the back. Problems with adhesive residue around the edges of the letters, problems with adhesive sticking to substrate after weeding off waste material, etc., etc.
I would like to use a large format laser (at least .24"x48" table) to cut custom shapes out of sheets of .5 acrylic and corian with gravotac/rowmark letters on top and then transfer them to the engraver for braille. I am looking at a ULS ILS12.150D, a GCC Explorer or Gaia and a Trotec speedy 500. I want to do high production speed and large quantities but I find the table sizes to be a limiting factor for me so one of the options I am also considering is the Multicam 2000 series with a 50”x100” table and either a 200w or 400w Synrad laser.
http://www.multicam.com/eng/Products/lasers.html
Does anyone here have any experience with one of these? I can’t seem to find any info about them except on the Multicam website. Unfortunately there are no demos close by for me to see. They seem to be a rare item and I would really like to know how well they work before I spend $150k.
Thanks for sharing all of your valuable comments and info.
Paul Phillips

[Mike Null]

Another brand you should consider is Kern.
And welcome to SMC.

[Stephen Beckham]

Paul,

Not familiar with either, but don't forget that Epilog has a large format laser special ordered that can handle full size sheets as well - see if you can get some information about them as well...

Steve

[Mike Mackenzie]

Paul,

Multicam makes a very good large format router, and I believe that there laser system just uses the same format except with a laser. The problem with most large format systems like this is they will pretty much only do cutting and then they are only as fast as the router would be which is not extremely fast.

You would need the power to get your speeds up IE 150 watts or better. If you get a flying optic system with this power or better you could do your application reasonably quick.

You may also want to check out beam dynamics they make a high power fast cutting system.

[Rob Bosworth]

Paul, when you start looking at large format cutting systems, you should look at Kern Laser in Wadena, MN. Kern makes laser cutting and engraving systems up to 4 ft. X 8 ft. I was talking to Gerald Kern the other day and he was talking about new processing speeds of up to 150 "/second. They also use lasers from 25 watts up to 400 watts.

[Sandra Force]

I operate 2 Kern lasers, one small 24"x48" 100w and one large 48"x96" 150w. I have run the Epilog laser and while I have nothing against it the laser is not geared for industrial type use. The Kerns are expense but you will get your money's worth. The customer service is excellent and if you call Jim Anderson at Kern he can tell you who nearest you is operating a Kern. I have looked at a couple of other manufacturers of industrial type lasers in the last year and Kern is still my favorite. If you have any questions please feel free to pm me.:D

To give you an idea of what I am using them for. Cutting up to 3/4" birch plywood, 1/2" plexiglass, 3/4" walnut cherry and maple, polycarbonate, plastic. Engraving gravoply ultra, plexiglass, marine acrylic mirror, hardwood, plywood, glass mirror. tile corian. stone. Kern is now making a high speed engraving laser that is much faster than what I am currently using. Mine are 3-5 years old and still have very low repair costs.

[Paul Phillips]

Thank you all for your great suggestions. I looked at both the Kern and the Beam Dynamics systems and was very impressed with both. Tough choices! I actually found a source for a used Beam Dynamics LMC5000 system for sale. It's a 5yr old system for less than half price with a new 250w tube! It sure sounds tempting and if anyone has any advice on buying used systems I'm listening. I mainly want to cut 1/2" and 1/4" acrylic as fast as possible and from what I can see any of these machines would be at the top of the list for that.
Thanks again for your input,
Paul

[Doug Griffith]

There is also the Shop Sabre laser although I have no experience with one.

I also have a MultiCam M-series router. They are built like a rock and use a Windows interface. I'm curious if anyone has used their proprietary g-code software called "EZ G-Code Creator". I can not find any information on it much less how to acquire. I'm thinking it's vaporware. Ny information would be great.

Cheers