Chinese laser suppliers in Europe. What do you have to say?

So we are changing our laser for a new model and I was wondering how is the market and what is your experience with the newer models/suppliers.

We had a Gweike 9060, which is not great but has not performed all that bad either... a few issues with the control card, but mainly a lot of problems with Lasercut 5.3 which is extremely buggy.

We are considering a new Gweike, but also checking on what other suppliers have to offer nowadays.

Any recommendations based on your experience?

I heard about Shenui and Haoyue from another forum member, and I've seen Aeon and Bodor as new brands to me. Older known brands to me are Gbos, ThunderLaser, and NiceCut.

I'd say one of those will get the order. We are looking for a 1290 RECI with Ruida basically.

I'd love to hear what you have to say. Thanks!

I've not used Laser Cut in any version but have used RDWorks, which was included with my laser. I've since migrated to Lightburn software to control my import laser and like that bunches better than RDWorks. Lightburn is $80 for the 1st year and $30 per year after that if you want to keep getting the upgrades, which come out a few times per year. There is a free trial if you want to get a taste of it. I know that it runs on Ruida-based lasers but is also supported on a couple of other controller brands.

I have a Thunderlaser Nova 24 and have been happy with that for the past two years, but only use it sporadically in mostly a hobby setting. From what I've read, Thunderlaser units are based on GWeike but I'm not sure if that applies to the Nova 24 model as the specs for that laser don't match any of GWeike's offerings.

Many thanks for the input Michael, I was planning too on using lightburn :) It definitively seems much better than the provided software, that was one of the reasons for looking after a Ruida controller.

Glad to hear your Thunderlaser is working great, for what I've been quoted I see Thunderlaser is considerably more expensive than GWeike.

Has anybody recent experience with Shenhui? I've seen some few years old posts where folks were happy with their machines. I wonder how is the recent production.
They along Gweike seems to be the long-standing ones around here.

On the other hand, I have asked Bodor a few times already for information and they would not even give me a price. The commercial always says that will get back to you but then I get no email from them.

For the rest of the brands mentioned, they seem pretty much the same, some with fancier looking machines and more expensive rates, some with more classic looking machine but I'd say as much capable for a cheaper rate.

Hello sir, I'm from Bodor laser? and we are not sure who talked with you. But would you mind sending us your email, I will ask our sales man to contact you right now if you are still interested in our machines? Hope for your reply! Thank you!

Hello sir, I'm from Bodor laser? and we are not sure who talked with you. But would you mind sending us your email, I will ask our sales man to contact you right now if you are still interested in our machines? Hope for your reply! Thank you!

Hi Sir, This is Sherry from AEON Laser. Very glad to know that you have some interests in our AEON machines. You are free to talk to me for any more information! Thank you in advance!

Dear Sir. First seen AEON Laser, you would be attracted by the very beautiful design, then the smooth machine body. When you look carefully at the structure, you would be in doubt, is it really made in China? But when it starts to engrave and cut, the fast speed, then you couldn't refuse to go away.

Hi Peleacios, I'm in the market for a laser machine and I was wonder if you could you share the experience, please. What laser did you buy at the end and what is your feedback. I'm looking at the same brands as you were mentioning in your previous posts. Thanks

Hi MrBhunter,
we've put the purchase in pause.

We were talking with several suppliers and it was quite disappointing compared with our previous purchase.

Some would quote different prices depending on the commercial who replied to your email.
Others, give you a good price to start, but then say they can't sell directly and you have to go thru their official partner in your region, who will bump the price 3x or even 4x for the same machine with a sticker to make it look like a local brand.

There are still some brands that seem to offer a good compromise between price and quality, but they are not very open about which components they use... although all these machines look the same, quality of components is not the same. After all, they are just assembly factories borrowing the same design, so component quality is the key; anyhow, you will have to tweak more or less the assembly depending on how careful they were while putting it together as well.

For the moment we are upgrading the controller and software of our current machine.
Later on, considering that you can buy all the components as spare parts, and that we are a fab shop used to put together CNC machines (with several years of experience tweaking our laser, mill and plasma cutter)... we might consider building a new one from the ground up ourselves.

Hi Peleacios,

As you were mentioning before Shenhui, for us, tick basically most of our requests, however, We have few others GWeike, Han's Laser and HSG. Fortunately, due to the location of the workshop, we aren't forced to buy from the local crooks ( or dealers). The only problem we've had with main "brands", not all are offering hybrid servo drive ar at least servo drive but just stepper drive. Shenhui offering all the components we need, got our attention...What I was hoping was that you've purchased one or at least done more research in regards to the brand. Thanks, Nick

Hi Nick, Shenhui looks as a good bet for me too.

Geweike, I have the feeling that has gone the wrong direction over the last few years. The first time I talked with them they custom made a machine for us, now they won't even bother to install two different watt tubes in a double head machine, they only focus on a few standardized models... which has its pros and cons, but considering the support and commercial relations have gone worse rather than improving, I see it only as a con.

Han's Laser and HSG, I know nothing about them.

Regardless, ask for the parts that you want, as I said they are assembly factories. Specially Shenhui and other "not so popular" (they don't troll the forums and invest so much in marketing, trade shows etc) will build a custom machine for you.

Though there is a lot of folks that have early Shenhui machines here, I have not crossed with anyone who bought from them recently.
I was talking with a Shenhui commercial and the conversation was fine, I did not saw any red flags and they knew what they were talking about.

What machine/components are you looking to get?

Hi Peleacios, Could you please tell me what laser did you buy at the end? quality and services are very important.

we have good 1290 RECI with Ruida basically co2 laser cutter with cw5000 chiller and 100w 150w reci tube ,,,,

Hi Mr. Peleacios,

I´m user of laser machine and current I have a bystronic 4000w and we are thinking about a new laser machine maybe from China due to the very big differnce in price.

May I know your experience about Chinese brands? Did you buy any machine from China? Some advice?

Thanks in advance.

Hello,
We are laser machine manufacture in China.
We have 1000w, 2000w, 3000w, 4000w, 6000w and even higher power.
More details can be shared.
Best Regards,
Bonnie