[glintid]

I was enquiring about a new laser tube and noticed Rabbit (hxlaser.com) now offers a RF laser option with their laser.

My laser the Rabbit HX6090SE (60cm x 90cm) is $6700 with a 30W and $9500 with a 70W and $13000 for a 100w RF tube. The 120cm x 90cm unit is only $500 more. Seems it's a big job to retrofit an existing glass tubed machine so they quoted on a new machine. I've already bought from them so their prices may reflect that.

From the photos on their site, the brand name on the RF laser unit is Diamond Series manufactured by Coherent in the US. Check out their site at coherent.com, the logo looks the same. Not sure if the unit in the pics is the one that comes with the machine.

Anyone know how these prices compare to similar sized US manufactured and the GCC machines?

It seems like a matter of time before they manufacture a Chinese version of the RF laser, if they haven't already done it. Seems like the gap is closing quickly.

Looks like I may have found my second machine!

[MacGyver]

Though I'd love to see a Chinese RF laser hit the market, I'm not holding my breath. Glass manufacturing equipment is a dime a dozen over there, so the tubes are common items... RF resonator setups, on the other hand, require some brains to design.

The 30W price seems a bit high to me (I would expect the price to be closer to the $4k-5k mark), but the 70W price looks quite attractive for the extra power. If those prices are for the entire machine and not just the laser, that would explain the extra dough for the 30W. Coherent makes some of the best RF, so if you get their warranty, I say it's a good deal.

[glintid]

The prices are for the whole machine. Not sure about the warranty and if it is through Coherent. I get what you are saying about manufacturing RF lasers, they look like really critical items to manufacture. I used to dabble in RF design on the side and I understand how hard it was to get consistent results. Interesting though that they are responding to the market. The glass tubes have been their weak point.

David

[ArturoV]

That would be nice(RF laser tubes)
Do you think their would be a way to swap the glass tube for an RF laser tube? Will it be compatibable?

[glintid]

That would be nice(RF laser tubes)
Do you think their would be a way to swap the glass tube for an RF laser tube? Will it be compatibable?

The power supply is different. Coherent lasers are sold with a matching supply. Not sure if the electronics that trigger the supply are the same though.

Rabbit told me there were some differences in the machine. Also not sure if the "laser out" on the RF unit is in the right place to align with the mirrors. They have technical drawings on their site so you could check this if so inclined.

Rabbit shows coolant lines on their laser but I know thy offer air cooled units up to 70W. If so, I expect you would have to modify the case to allow air flow. Coherent liquid cooled lasers use a mix of water and a Dupont manufactured coolant.

Might be simpler to sell your existing laser and buy a new one from them.

[lamicron]

I have a diamond 55w from coherent and a 80 w laser tube , the diamond outputs 90w, cutting is a lot different, with the diamond I cut acrylic plate of 9 mm at 10mm/sec , with the laser tube at 2 or 3mm. the difference in thiner plates increases more, if I cut 3mm is about 10/12mm /sec with the glass tube and with coherent could be 40mm/sec
The chinese Rf will be that fast??
They say the RF will last for 8000 hours.
Other question is if it will accept to repair like the us rf's

[MacGyver]

RF tubes will typically last much longer than 8k hours. So there are no complaints about over-specing (those of us in the USA are a litigious bunch), US manufacturers will under-rate their RF tubes... something similar is done with the more reputable car audio speaker and amplifier companies. 90W from a 55W-spec'd tube is on the high side (you got lucky, 70W would be more typical). Your numbers seem to show a somewhat consistent 3- to 4-fold increase in cutting speed between the RF and glass tube, regardless of speed. Are you sure you're getting 80W out of the glass tube?

Unless they fail to put in a cap for the tube refills, I see no reason why one can't be recharged just as easily as a US version.

[glintid]

The Rabbit laser looks like it is manufactured by Coherent which IS a U.S. company. Same unit, I believe as is in some of the the Pinnacle and GCC lasers. Not sure of the warranty info, I didn't ask. I expect it would carry the same OEM warranty aws the other laser manufacturers.

[lamicron]

I have problems with the machine with the 80 w glass tube, (Maybe is not using all the power)thats why I haven't talk about these brand in the forum, the machine is not bad but it has many items to fix and sometimes it starts to work crazy, we spend a lot of time getting it back to normal work, the rails are too short,then the machine jumps out of the rail and gets disaligned, then we had to imput a smaller size for the table, other times have also loosing the alignment from the mirrors.
The other machine is older, simplest, but works great, these one is from Wuhan Zhongtai.
I'll really think that chinese rf will be the solution, I have a lot of problems importing the glass tubes, get broken , come with no gas, or not working, etc

[lamicron]

I have problems with the machine with the 80 w glass tube, (Maybe is not using all the power)thats why I haven't talk about these brand in the forum, the machine is not bad but it has many items to fix and sometimes it starts to work crazy, we spend a lot of time getting it back to normal work, the rails are too short,then the machine jumps out of the rail and gets disaligned, then we had to imput a smaller size for the table, other times have also loosing the alignment from the mirrors.
The other machine is older, simplest, but works great, these one is from Wuhan Zhongtai.
I'll really think that chinese rf will be the solution, I have a lot of problems importing the glass tubes, get broken , come with no gas, or not working, etc

[glintid]

I have problems with the machine with the 80 w glass tube, (Maybe is not using all the power)thats why I haven't talk about these brand in the forum, the machine is not bad but it has many items to fix and sometimes it starts to work crazy, we spend a lot of time getting it back to normal work, the rails are too short,then the machine jumps out of the rail and gets disaligned, then we had to imput a smaller size for the table, other times have also loosing the alignment from the mirrors.
The other machine is older, simplest, but works great, these one is from Wuhan Zhongtai.
I'll really think that chinese rf will be the solution, I have a lot of problems importing the glass tubes, get broken , come with no gas, or not working, etc

I believe the 80W glass tubes are pushing the limits of that type of technology. Also, maybe the larger 1.2m x .9m table size is also pushing the extremes of their type of design/construction. I believe that you pay a premium for the longer rails. Maybe it's difficult to get cosistent results when manufacturing them.

I too belive that the RF laser unit will be the answer. I also think that Rabbit and other Chinese manufacturers need to design a print driver that works within Windows to simplify the workflow. Although, as cumbersome as LaserCut 5.0 is, I've gotten used to it so it's not such a big deal anymore. I also noticed that the driver boards used in Rabbit machines can use Servo motors too. The RF with the Servo option plus a new print driver will make their products really competitive. This, and a little more standardization in the manufacturing process will go a long way.

David

[smoe]

Our LC1280 from WKlaser is doing a good job on 8 mm Acrylic. We can cut this with 10 mm/sec, but lower speed results in better cut quality.
Machine has an 80W Glass tube, now 6 months old. There has been no decrease in output power until now. I think the glass tubes are not necessarily bad, but you have to be lucky to get a good one in your machine.

[glintid]

Our LC1280 from WKlaser is doing a good job on 8 mm Acrylic. We can cut this with 10 mm/sec, but lower speed results in better cut quality.
Machine has an 80W Glass tube, now 6 months old. There has been no decrease in output power until now. I think the glass tubes are not necessarily bad, but you have to be lucky to get a good one in your machine.

My 60w has been going for a year now and power levels are the same, or if they have diminished, it's not really noticible. I never use more than 95% power so the tube has never been pushed to the max. I was reading about Synrad RF tubes and the state that high gas purity also results in long tube life. They have been able to get real life use cycles of 45000 hours! You can then refill thetube and do it again! But then, you pay for that.