by btboone » Sun Oct 07, 2012 8:22 pm
The laser itself was about $85K from IPG Photonics, and the laser head with two parfocal lenses and height sensing was about $19K from Laser Mechanisms. These were added to the machine and the sheet metal enclosure I designed and had cut, so it wasn't cheap, but that was not my intention on this one. It is possible to go about a quarter of the cost. I think a fiber laser unit might start in the $20K range or so and would be much more powerful than the CO2 lasers of comparable cost. That would be a 150 watt continuous or 1500 watt pulsed unit, which would plug into 110v and be air cooled. The laser head is about $7K or so for the basic one. This would easily go through 1/8" stainless with a crazy fine kerf.
Here's a picture of the kerf on a ring I just cut.
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