FEBRUARY TEN 2022 DIGITAL | Page 8

HPC LASER

How do I choose the right laser cutter ?

The laser cutting industry is expanding rapidly , and thousands of laser cutters are sold each year .
With so many choices , how do you choose the right one ?
Hopefully we ’ ll increase the likelihood of that by the end of this article .
Let ’ s be honest , laser engravers can be a significant investment , but in the right hands are a superb tool when setting up a new venture . There are so many variables to choose from , including laser sources to bed sizes , laser tube power and accessories .
Machine selection is essentially a function of 3 things :
What material do you want to cut / engrave and how thick ? This will determine what type and power of laser you will need .
What bed size do you need ? This will determine what machine size is best for you .
What is your available budget ? This is essentially the acid test as to whether your power and machine size expectations are realistic or if some adjustment is necessary or possible .
There are a few other tips we strongly advise you to take note of that we will mention later .
If you ’ re buying your first machine , unless you ’ ve already used a machine elsewhere or have carried out diligent research you ’ re unlikely to have extensive knowledge in the field . This is the time to start researching and speaking to machine owners . You can find plenty of groups on social media where you can get in touch with these people . We highly recommend speaking to an industry professional to get more of an insight . We host machine demonstrations and visit exhibitions so you can spend some time with one of our engineers to get to know the machine and its capabilities first-hand .
Type
One of the first things to consider when thinking about purchasing a laser cutter or engraver is the type of laser you need . The most common are CO2 and Fiber . Our article CO2 vs Fibre can tell you more about the functionalities and capabilities of these two types . For more information on Nd and Nd-YAG lasers visit AI Metal Finishing
Purpose
CO2 lasers can engrave and cut a lot of non-metallic materials such as woods and plastics but , when working with metals the wavelength and additional power of a fibre laser is much more suited . If you ’ re only marking uncoated metals , a CO2 lasers can mark some metals when coated with a metal marking solution such as MarkSolid Marking Spray or Paste . However , when it comes to metallic materials , CO2 machines produce excellent results on coated metals , such as anodized and powder coated , without the need for a marking compound . CO2 Galvo Engravers are specifically designed for executing these kind of jobs at incredible speeds .
If you ’ re interested in marking uncoated metals , a fibre engraver would be more suitable .
Power
Are you a hobbyist using the machine occasionally ? Or a business wanting to run the machine for long hours each day to meet demand ? For somebody cutting card and engraving plywood a Desktop setup would usually be ideal , whereas if you ’ re cutting thicker woods and plastics a higher powered CO2 machine would be more suited . However , if you ’ re wanting to create high volumes of metallic products at speed , a fibre engraver would be more effective and efficient .
Size
The size of the bed dictates the maximum size of materials you can cut ( a larger bed will allow you to work with bigger pieces of material ). Even if the design area is small , you can cut it multiple times across the same piece . The majority of the HPC range includes a pass-through panel that you can feed material through that would otherwise be too large to fit on the bed .
A bed with a height adjustment feature means you can cut objects of different
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