Hypertherm HFL015

[citizen bidet]

fiber laser cutter. No idea how much one of these costs but I am guessing a lot more than most diy/casual could afford. Is it reasonable to think that diy laser cutting isn't far away in the future?

[jimcolt]

The Hypertherm Fiber Laser system is a laser cutting system with up to 1/2" steel cutting capability...that uses a fiber optic cable as the beam delivery system. This typr of beam delifery allows for use of this laser cutting system on robots and conventional types of cnc cutting machines. It uses a solid state laser power supply, which eliminates long term resonator maintenance costs, ands comes with an integrated cutting head height control system.

These systems do require a full safety enclosure, and are priced very competitively with industrial C02 metal cutting lasers. Pricing is likely outside of the realm of entry level cnc machine applications...as it is in the $200k range.

Here is a link to the Hypertherm site with more details. Fiber Laser Cutting Equipment | Hypertherm
Jim Colt

[BBchevy396_]

Wow, only 200K?!?... Jim, could you put three of them on order for me?



~Does sound purdy bad-azz!~

I occasionally have stainless steel parts laser cut for me, and the cut edge quality is amazing!

[jimcolt]

It is definitely not for the home hobbysist...the Fiber Laser from Hypertherm produces amazing cut quality on thin materials at high speed, high duty cycle...and it is designed to be a robust industrial machine that can run 3 shifts, 365 days. The formula for low cost machines would be quite a bit different!

Jim

[marketkey2]

Mr Jim Colt , in our factory we have 2 plasma cutting machines with 2 hpr130 unit ,
now we are looking for laser , we were happy with your new fiberlaser
but when we asked our plasma cutting machine supplier to
supply us hyperther fiber laser on the same cutting system of plasma ,
they were not satisfied with this and they recommended us to use the linear system of the co2
laser which is expensive about 360000 $ , Could you please tell us about the companies that supply your new fiber laser with the normal plasma cutting systems?
this is my E-mail: marketkey2@yahoo.com

[Benderart]

Originally Posted by jimcolt It is definitely not for the home hobbysist...the Fiber Laser from Hypertherm produces amazing cut quality on thin materials at high speed, high duty cycle...and it is designed to be a robust industrial machine that can run 3 shifts, 365 days. The formula for low cost machines would be quite a bit different! Jim

Hey Jim,
Better send a couple to my Laser guys, they've got three 6kw CO2 lasers working around the clock and, I'm still waiting for stuff ordered 11 days ago.

[citizen bidet]

Originally Posted by Benderart Hey Jim, Better send a couple to my Laser guys, they've got three 6kw CO2 lasers working around the clock and, I'm still waiting for stuff ordered 11 days ago.

It's not just here then, I was starting to get paranoid, I reckon I could have done my parts using a dremel by now.

[austin.mn]

Originally Posted by citizen bidet fiber laser cutter. No idea how much one of these costs but I am guessing a lot more than most diy/casual could afford. Is it reasonable to think that diy laser cutting isn't far away in the future?

I did notice one of the Chinese suppliers offering a 500w Yag laser for about 30k that would cut metal.

If that is where they were at 3 months ago, I would like to think that you will be able to buy that laser and head from one of them for around 5grand in the not so distant future. From what I understand Yag lasers aren't that great, but I truly don't know anything about them at this point.

I will be looking into it in a couple of years though. You know, when my plasma table actually starts making me money.

[jimcolt]

Hypertherms new fiber laser system is still a relatively new product for us...although we have been developing and testing it for over 8 years. It takes a bit longer to get a complicated product like this accepted and approved on OEM cnc machines worldwide....but we are making excellent progress. Our plasma systems are the "plasma of choice" on cnc machines produced by over 85 manufacturers worldwide....and the ultimate goal for the Fiber Laser system will be similar.

The advantages of a Fiber Laser over a C02 laser of the same cutting power level are numerous. The fiber laser's beam is delivered to the cutting head via a flexible, fiber optic cable....which can run through x and y motion power tracks on conventional cnc machine designs....A C02 laser needs the beam delivered through an assembly of tubes and mirrors (keeping the beam length between the laser resonator and the cutting head exactly the same length at all times)...which adds weight, cost, complexity and maintenance issues to the cnc machine design.

Other advantages of a fiber laser: A solid state power supply that requires virtually no maintenance and eventual rebuild (look up C02 laser rebuilding costs), integrated cutting head height control, easy to set up and use by the operator, better cut performance on highly reflective materials (aluminum, copper, etc.)

As far as comparing to a Yag laser....which also can be delivered via a fiber optic cable....the Yag technology has limitation regarding the amount of energy that can be delivered through the fiber optics...and generally is just used for very thin materials (less than 3 mm)....while the fiber laser technology currently can cut to 1/2", and with a little more development will be able to cut much thicker.

Jim Colt Hypertherm

Originally Posted by marketkey2 Mr Jim Colt , in our factory we have 2 plasma cutting machines with 2 hpr130 unit , now we are looking for laser , we were happy with your new fiberlaser but when we asked our plasma cutting machine supplier to supply us hyperther fiber laser on the same cutting system of plasma , they were not satisfied with this and they recommended us to use the linear system of the co2 laser which is expensive about 360000 $ , Could you please tell us about the companies that supply your new fiber laser with the normal plasma cutting systems? this is my E-mail: marketkey2@yahoo.com

[xavier2nd]

When did this come out???? Whats the HFL015 cost?

[jimcolt]

The Hypertherm fiber laser has been available since last Fall. It is priced at around $200k.

Jim Colt

[xavier2nd]

200k, that's about 180k beyond my budget.