It is true that laser cutting is a costly affair if you compare it with traditional methods. However, considering laser cutting advantages and the value for money, it’s actually more cost-effective than other technical methods like waterjet cutting.
At present, many manufacturers still use CO2 laser cutting machine which are under a good condition, such as Bystronic and Trumpf.
Before introduce how to reduce the cutting cost, you need to know what main factors determine the cutting cost.
Generally, how much is laser cutting going to cost depends on the labor involved, the total time, and the design complexities. However, that is a very broad perspective. If you take at the granular factors that determine the overall laser cutting cost per inch, you’ll find the following to be the most important ones.
1. Cutting Speed And Thickness
It would take more time to penetrate and cut through the thicker the material. That’s why the overall thickness of the material has an effect on the laser cutting service cost.
Furthermore, thinner parts can also be processed simultaneously. This means that you can stack multiple parts on top of each other and cut them at the same time. Doing so allows you to increase your output with minimal increase in effort. Thereby reducing the costs.
However, you need to be careful about the number of layers. Too many would take the thickness beyond the laser’s overall cutting capacity and may increase your costs.
2. Operating Cost
An equivalent 4000W CO2 laser and chiller combination could be as high 250kW for operation.
Take 1kw cost is $0.06 per hour based on working 250 days as standard, there will be $19350 per year per hour at 6 hours, $38700 per year per hour at 12 hours. The actual cost will vary from somewhat less to somewhat more.
3. Maintenance Cost
Maintenance is about keeping it running smoothly so that breakdowns don’t happen.
The most important advice for maintenance of your CO2 laser machine is to always keep the machine clean. Regularly check whether the mirrors and lenses are still clean, regularly clean the machine, check guides and so on.
However, over time and depending on how intensively the laser machine is used, maintenance costs will arise. CO2 laser machines have various parts that need to be maintained and replaced. The most common and most important to consider are Laser source (glass tube), mirrors and lenses, moving parts.
Spare parts of CO2 Laser are expensive. The turbine costs more than $30000, the electron tubes costs around $2000 and thousands USD cost of lenses are needed. The glass tubes will be also aged.
Solution
Newlaz provide a good solution to reduce the cutting cost of CO2 laser for you, which has been proved successfully by different customers all over the world.
We can help you upgrade your CO2 laser cutting machine with fiber laser, upgrading time is short, usually around 3 days. Our technical team will also give you a support.
Below is simply upgrading procedure for your reference.
After upgrading CO lasers, you will get:
1. Higher cutting speed and cutting ability
Higher productivity and greater machine capacity! With the Fiber laser capable of five times faster cutting speeds, generating three to four times more parts per unit of time and coupled with 50% less operating costs as compared to CO2, this represents a large opportunity based on having created more machine capacity.
After upgrading, your machine can cut 20mm mild steel with 3kw laser power, 25mm mild steel with 6kw laser power. Below is data for your reference.
2. Lower operating cost
A 3000W fiber laser requires 10kW of electrical power plus 5kW for a chiller with a total of 15kW. Take 1kw cost is $0.06 per hour based on working 250 days as standard, there will be $1350 per year per at 6 working hour, $2,700 per year at 12 working hour. It much lower than CO2.
3. No large maintenance cost
Fiber laser cutting machine don’t need to clean or align of mirrors or beam path. After upgrading to fiber laser, maintenance costs may save $5000 per year.
If you want to know more details, welcome to contact us, also welcome to visit our youtube channel Newlaz, you will find more different real upgrading cases.
