Continuing the discussion from Laser Cutter Down Until Further Notice: 2018-Feb-09:
Discuss.
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Fiber lasers from what I’ve seen are generally only used for marking on metals, not really general cutting use - and are much more expensive. I haven’t looked into them for a long time (basically since we bought this laser) however.
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I looked into them recently and that was my impression as well. They are
etching lasers, not cutting lasers. I’ m certainly not an expert, but
that was what I gathered. You can do some really cool stuff with them, but
all of the ones I saw lacked the power to cut.
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See http://www.spilasers.com/industrial-fiber-lasers/redenergy-g4/
The red and near red frequency fiber lasers can be used for plastic & wood and high power ones 8mm Mild Steel!
All we want is a Lockheed Martin Fiber laser that can burn a hole through military vehicle at long distances (hundreds of meters)!
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I’d say that the viability of transitioning to a fibre laser would come down to a few factors:
- Fibre Laser setup
- Conversion of current setup
- Enclosure
- Software
- Filtering system
- Safety systems
- any other costs/issues that I’m probably forgetting
Just because a fibre laser can cut different materials, it doesn’t mean it’s safe to do so.
Perhaps this is something we can look into for a next space, but in the mean time… we have a laser that’s not operational, so, operationally, that’s where the priority should be right now.
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Getting “Unbiased” expert advice, not advice from “salespeople” is single most hurdle.
May be Steve can provide us some. High Power Fiber lasers need to have strong and thick enclosures for safety, so that is a barrier.
So CO2 is tried and tested approach and let’s stick with that.
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