First of all, 3 years ago, we examined the machines manufactured by companies in china before buying a fiber laser metal cutting machine. After visiting 6-7 companies personally, we made our decision clear at JINANN BODOR CNC LASER. At the first stage, we bought 2 machines with 1500x3000 mm double table pipe cutting apparatus (auto chuck) from the company, and with many extras. Friends stated that they can send the machines within 10 days if the payment is in advance. However, we were able to load the first machine at the end of 40 days and the second machinery and apparatus at the end of 70 days. The real surprise started after buying the machines. Half of the parts we bought as spare did not come, and the pipe tightening apparatus of our machines came out manual. We were able to buy automatic pipe squeezing pieces by paying extra money.
At the end of the first year, bodor company attended the istanbul fair, they said they would bring two machines and sold us the machines, we bought the fair machine, thinking it would be special. 1 unit 1500x3000 double table double cutting with 4 kw max unit, 1 unit 6000x230 mm pipe cutting machine.
They used our firm as a showroom to sell machines in Turkey and we served around 30-35 customers (we didn't charge any fees). Since our company is a little far from the city, we do not have much work. For this reason, our 1500x3000 mm 4 kw max unit is only 150-200 hours. The machine broke down a few times in the past and we did not have the opportunity to operate it as much as it took 45 days for the parts to arrive. When we warned them, we were getting the answer "No problem, we'll take care of it."
About 1.5 years after we bought our machine, a machine that had only worked 150-200 hours, the max unit rezenator failed. The technical service tried to solve the problem with remote access, but they could not reach a result. The technical service in Turkey who hasn’t any clue about the work, asked us to send the laser unit to China(Jinan Firm). We do not know how to ship an electronic device weighing 350 kg.
We asked company officials to buy 4 kw max laser unit and give us 3 kw IPG laser unit, they told us they could not buy used machine and they rejected our offer (they forgot that the machine has 3 years warranty). After our pressures, they said that they would take the laser unit from us, send it to China, repair and assemble it. (in estimated time period of 90 days) The shipping bill they issued is 20 000 usd, they asked us for 10 000 usd for this invoice, except for the laser unit failure and spare parts prices.
We wanted IPG laser unit price for the company, they give China agreed price of USD 48 000, the results of our research indicated that, the IPG turkey distrubitor gave us 32,500 euros price (includes delivery to address).
When we tell the company about this incident, we got this response; Get your parts from Turkey and then you plug it into your machine.
Other machines malfunction a lot of times, but firm replacement parts sent from China that are experiencing problems with customs on the Turkey, Because the parts they sent have no definition. For example, when the machine pipe squeezing motors 24v 100 rpm pediatric car engine, pipe squeezing shafts malfunction, 300 usd auto focus head is defective 7500 usd etc. etc.
As a result, all the machines are scrapped without waiting for the warranty period. We have 4 machines and if they are not interested, we do not know what companies with 1 machine are doing.
I will start the necessary procedures about the company within the new year. If we can get results machine is going to work, if we can’t we are going to buy a new unit from Turkey and mount it to our machine.
Our advice to companies that are considering purchasing a new machine: please make your agreements notarized and, if necessary, approved by the commercial attache before buying the machine.