[Rontoo Hargrove]

I am needing a cutting and engraving system that will handle a variety of metals (Copper, Nickel Silver, Sterling Silver and Gold) most of the machines I have found will engrave these metals easily, however I am needing to be able to cut these out. Everything I will cut will be under 1 mm. I am wanting something that cuts clean, fairly user friendly, and wont break the bank. Thanks in advance!!

[Gweikelasers]

Metal cutting is a diffcult question to common laser, even very thin.

[gweikelaser]

@Rontoo Hargrove，

maybe fiber laser cutting machine can meet your demands

I am needing a cutting and engraving system that will handle a variety of metals (Copper, Nickel Silver, Sterling Silver and Gold) most of the machines I have found will engrave these metals easily, however I am needing to be able to cut these out. Everything I will cut will be under 1 mm. I am wanting something that cuts clean, fairly user friendly, and wont break the bank. Thanks in advance!!

[underthetire]

Copper is a tough one. Highly reflective on certain wavelengths, causing mirror damage. 1mm is fairly thick for copper. Be prepared to spend some money for a big enough laser.

[EXLASer]

Once we selled a 600W YAG 1212 machine to England which act perfectly . Here show you some samples . I think a lower power resonator can reach your demand .
Attachment 202554
Attachment 202556
Attachment 202558

Best regards,
Mary
XYZ Machinery

[underthetire]

Yag would be the way to go for those metals for sure. I'm wondering how small of kerf (spot size) can you squeeze your 600 watt to? I'd be interested in hearing more if you could get a 10-20 micron or so sized spot.

[Pieroy]

For cutting jobs which need to cut the workpiece out, high Power Co2 & Nd:YAG laser are recommended.
But here are 2 points should be taken into your consideration: CO2 is not easy to be absorbed by the high reflected material such as copper, aluminum etc. YAG is better on those metals but the conversion efficiency is low and needs maintanence. All that shows need high power to compensate.

No matter which one to be selected, as long as it is high power, nobody can guarantee the better cutting effect by spending low cost.

Piero

[Ch_Irawan]

Pieroy, what do you think about retrofitting a 1390 class co2 machine with fiber laser?
How thick a 500w fiber laser can cut on steel, aluminum and copper/brass?
How is china fiber laser these days, i only knew one brand - is that any good?

TIA, Ichan

[Exsecratio]

Ichan,

It's possible but the overall machine layout is wrong, rails would need to be changed and the drive system would be underpowered (fiber / YAG heads are heavy), the main body of the machine isn't set up to deal with metal particulate extraction and the electronics / bearings aren't sealed off.

So it's possible just not a very wise move.

Rontoo,

1,000 watt Fiber would be good for copper under 1mm, it's one time where more brute power is good.

cheers

Dave

[Pieroy]

Ichan,about your first question, my opinion is the same with Dave. not that easy...
and regarding a 500W fiber laser cuts on metals such as steel etc, I just use our machine C-F500 as example, max cutting deepth is 4mm at speed of 800mm/min, for thickness of 1mm you mentioned at speed of 6000mm/min.
About the China fiber laser, frankly speaking I don't have the qualification to comment it. Here are dozens of doctors & experts in this industry. What I am sure to tell you is here are two types: laser machines by our domestic components with cheaper pricing, another type got key components from overseas supplier with higher cost but for fitting high requirements just like precise cutting job, college research etc. It depends on what kind of requirement you need such as those beam quality and those questions you raised, the high class one and the low cost type for fitting normal operations can be supplied at same time.

Piero

[Ch_Irawan]

Hi Dave, thanks for the comments, i can see an expert who is speak. I am relatively new to the laser things, know fiber laser just from what i read on internet - i do know to some extent about mechatronics including cnc and motion control.

I have a ballscrew + servo driven 1390 class machine, it is GWeike LC1390S which is seems sturdy enough for me. Shame it cut only acrylic and plastics, that's why i have a thought to make it to have a better use. Ability to cut up to 2mm steel and some thinner metal would be enough.

How is the metal particulate extraction should be? Why do the electronics and bearings need to be sealed?


Piero, thanks - i visited your website several times already even before i meet you in here. My question actually about the fiber source not the machine, i heard that china now make their own fiber laser source, how it compare with the "imported" one, about the quality, reliability, and price?

I also still trying to find out some info about the laser head automatic height control, how it sense the height? Is that capacitively?

Thanks, Ichan.

[Exsecratio]

Hi Ichan

The method of height gauging on most metal cutters is based around flow restriction of the Gas coming from the nozzle or by optical sensors. For extraction the problem is the ultra fine metal particles that are produced by laser cutting steels etc, if that gets into the electronics you can have all sorts of bridging problems.

best wishes

Dave

[Pieroy]

Hi Ichan, I'm sorry for my late reply. I just had our national holiday for 7 days. Per your first question: yes, now we have own developed fiber laser. our domestic fiber source I give 4 star and the imported ones I give 5 star on quality & reliability.
Price is needless to mention, only cheaper ones from China.

As for your second question: You are right that the height is controlled capacitively. Mostly use imported capacitor controller to do sensing job...
Piero

Hi Dave, thanks for the comments, i can see an expert who is speak. I am relatively new to the laser things, know fiber laser just from what i read on internet - i do know to some extent about mechatronics including cnc and motion control.

I have a ballscrew + servo driven 1390 class machine, it is GWeike LC1390S which is seems sturdy enough for me. Shame it cut only acrylic and plastics, that's why i have a thought to make it to have a better use. Ability to cut up to 2mm steel and some thinner metal would be enough.

How is the metal particulate extraction should be? Why do the electronics and bearings need to be sealed?


Piero, thanks - i visited your website several times already even before i meet you in here. My question actually about the fiber source not the machine, i heard that china now make their own fiber laser source, how it compare with the "imported" one, about the quality, reliability, and price?

I also still trying to find out some info about the laser head automatic height control, how it sense the height? Is that capacitively?

Thanks, Ichan.

[Ch_Irawan]

Dave, thanks for the metal particles info, it is something new to know.

Piero, yes i know that holiday - hope you are freshly recharged now

Let's say i am stubborn, still want to put a fiber laser into my servo driven 1390 machine, what will i need?

- a fiber laser source let say 200 - 300 watt
- a matching power supply
- a laser head unit with auto height control

What else? How much the figure roughly?

Can the leetro controller be tweaked for this?

Waiting for comments...

-ichan

[beijingess]

Hi friend. Here is one plasma cutting machine which can cut as thin as 0.3mm.The cutting speed is 0~8000mm/min.This machine can avoid thermal deformation.can avoid adhering slag.can avoid dusts and smoke better. Hope this information can be helpful to you.For more informations about this machine ,pls visit:http://www.steeltailor.com/sproducts...0Machines.html

Have a nice day!

I am needing a cutting and engraving system that will handle a variety of metals (Copper, Nickel Silver, Sterling Silver and Gold) most of the machines I have found will engrave these metals easily, however I am needing to be able to cut these out. Everything I will cut will be under 1 mm. I am wanting something that cuts clean, fairly user friendly, and wont break the bank. Thanks in advance!!

[Pieroy]

Hi Ichan, something more like controlling hub, software, beam delievery and water chiller.
For the cost, different configurations from different companies got different results. This you have to get quotation from each supplier. no one will quote online the thread. lol.....
And there are hobbyists and professionals on working requirements. Quite a flexible stuff depends on individual requirement for industrial usage.

Piero

Dave, thanks for the metal particles info, it is something new to know.

Piero, yes i know that holiday - hope you are freshly recharged now

Let's say i am stubborn, still want to put a fiber laser into my servo driven 1390 machine, what will i need?

- a fiber laser source let say 200 - 300 watt
- a matching power supply
- a laser head unit with auto height control

What else? How much the figure roughly?

Can the leetro controller be tweaked for this?

Waiting for comments...

-ichan

[Ch_Irawan]

So it mean that a Leetro MPC6515 won't be enough to control the fiber laser, on what aspect is that?

It has pwm output to control the laser power and also output port to turn the gas on/off - how to control the fiber laser module?

-ichan

[Pieroy]

Nopp, I don't mean that, I think this Chengdu made controller works to many machines. I just follow our machine as example.
The inner structure of machines from different suppliers are different. The control hub is the same.

And as to your question on how to control fiber laser module. I think mostly use AO or EO switch to control the output. Correct me if I am wrong.. lol....

Weekend again, wish you a nice holiday.

So it mean that a Leetro MPC6515 won't be enough to control the fiber laser, on what aspect is that?

It has pwm output to control the laser power and also output port to turn the gas on/off - how to control the fiber laser module?

-ichan

[Ch_Irawan]

I looked into the controller of my fiber marking machine, it is USBLMC_CUH_IPG controller. Seems not pwm input to control the laser power, it has 8 bit parallel output for that. Where i can find wiring diagram of about 200w fiber laser, would you?
I am on my way to make myself confidence enough with this idea :idea:

-ichan

[grawley]

I put a SPI 200 watt CW fiber on a 20 inch by 12 inch machine, could not run it too fast because the head was quite heavy. I cut and deep engraved stainless steel.

I think a retrofit for the mid-power CW fiber lasers is fine (200-400 watt). For your information, the EO (electro optical Q switch) and AO (acousto optical Q switch) are not technologies used on CW (continuous wave) lasers that perform metal cutting. In metal cutting, the fiber laser is set to CW to maximize cut capability. In fiber markers, pulsing (using AO and EO) increases the power for effective marking. For example, a 10 watt average power IPG fiber laser will have a peak pulsed power of about 8000 watts. When run in pulsed mode (q switched with AO or EO) the average power reading is much less than 10 watts. This is the phenomena of pulsing (extremely high peak power and very low average power).

Back to the machine retrofit... In my opinion, the mid power fiber can be put on the gantry, though a few mechanical changes are recommended. Changes include swapping the rubber belt for a metal belt, changing the base plate to hold the beam delivery (and making sure it is balanced or else the angular force on the linear bearings will cause them to fail prematurely).

Change the configuration file in the Leetro so the accelerations are greatly reduced. Also, may need to add an add-on board to control the fiber laser (in my experience the Leetro can put out a sloppy square wave, and below 5V).

The laser head itself can be complex, but it my opinion it can be simplified. As for the height sensing, this can be added as a separate, independently controlled, module.