• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Flatbed CNC laser recommendations

J

jdwilliams1

New Member
Thanks for reading...

So I am in the market for a flatbed CNC laser. Anyone having luck with equipment from China, or are the US manufacturers the way to go...I think I know the answer to this but would like some feedback. I know I can get junk for $15000? Or spend well over $200k. If you have had lcuk with less expensive machines I would love to hear about it.

What I would need.

Need to be able to cut .025 aluminum flawlessly, .032 and .040 would be a bonus

Would like to know if these have a camera/registration mark capabilities

Would like to know what type of wattage I would need to have a great speed and a great cut.

Thanks
 
MarkSnelling

MarkSnelling

Mark Snelling - Hasco Graphics
I sell the Colex units and they are well under $150,000. Made in New Jersey. I can arrange for an online demo and then they'll ship you the samples they cut overnight for you to touch and feel. If you want to go see them in person after that, then they'll pick up a flight for you to go to Newark to the plant where you can run them.

I've sold a few of the Asian routers. Did NOT work out well. I still feel bad about them. I'd avoid it and go with stateside support and service. Let me know if I can arrange a demo and send over some pricing!
 
J

jdwilliams1

New Member
MarkSnelling said:
I sell the Colex units and they are well under $150,000. Made in New Jersey. I can arrange for an online demo and then they'll ship you the samples they cut overnight for you to touch and feel. If you want to go see them in person after that, then they'll pick up a flight for you to go to Newark to the plant where you can run them.

I've sold a few of the Asian routers. Did NOT work out well. I still feel bad about them. I'd avoid it and go with stateside support and service. Let me know if I can arrange a demo and send over some pricing!
Click to expand...
Thanks for getting back to me Mark, what laser wattage do you offer. I assume it can cut cleanly through the aluminum I mentioned?
 
JBurton

JBurton

Signtologist
I don't believe so, as nice as that would be, I think it would 'interfere' with the automation features of the machine, plus lots of the stuff they're meant to cut have toxic qualities when lasered.
I've never heard of a laser with a vision system, not sure why they wouldn't work fine together, just haven't seen it.
 
MarkSnelling

MarkSnelling

Mark Snelling - Hasco Graphics
jdwilliams1 said:
Thanks for getting back to me Mark, what laser wattage do you offer. I assume it can cut cleanly through the aluminum I mentioned?
Click to expand...
I didn't read your post correctly and missed the part about lazers. Colex does NOT have lazer cutting, but has no problem cutting aluminum at all. Let me know if you want to do a virtual demo!
 
J

jdwilliams1

New Member
Thank you for all the recommendations. I was hoping to find a needle in the haystack machine that did not cost an arm and a leg, but I certainly understand you get what you pay for.
 
astro8

astro8

New Member
We now have a Kern HSE100 with the Coherent DiamondE400watt laser ( measured at 590watts) after having a 100watt Chinese and couple of 320watt Chinese lasers and a Universal.
The Kern is on another level and another couple of levels in price but it is everything I’ve ever wanted in a laser. It’s flawless. You would need the metal cutting option from Kern to cut aluminium. I’m going another route and getting a fibre ( probably Chinese from Dahan Laser) for metal cutting and the Kern for everything else. Kern also make fibre lasers and I expect them to also be on another level. Fibre is the way to go for any metal cutting.
Another option for you is a Chinese fibre ( which are pretty good from all that I’ve researched ) and a Chinese CO2 for acrylic etc to keep costs down. Dahan Laser are good, our 320watt CO2’s were from them. If we only cut metal we would only buy a fibre laser. Note that aluminium is a more difficult metal to cut than steel or stainless.
Trotec are good but I don’t think they have a decent size flatbed metal cutting version. Kern are more industrial, more production machines than a Trotec.
 
G

GaSouthpaw

Profane and profane accessories.
Last ISA show I went to (2022, I think), the Trotec guy told me they didn't offer any metal cutting lasers.
 
M@CK

M@CK

New Member
I remember looking in to that a while back, and I remember a company named MTC had one with a conveyer belt and camera system.
The company has ben purchased by Gerber since not sure what happened to the line of machines.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top