The Little Laser Shop (The
Little DieShoppe of Horrors?)
By
Mike Adams
According to Bob
Larson, there are approximately 1800 diemaking facilities in the US.
Of these operations, more than 70% have CAD systems. However, less than 100, or
about 5%, have lasers. Clearly there is a sizable gap between the number of
businesses creating designs on computers and those using their drawings to
produce laser-burned boards. Laser dies offer significant advantages over
jig dies, such as higher accuracy and repeatability. Because of these
advantages, many jig diemaking operations are looking into options for providing
laser dies to their customers. These options have traditionally been limited to
only a few choices; buying a new laser, buying a used laser, or buying burned
boards from a laser diemaker.
Buying a New
Dieboard System
When a jig die
shop decides that they want to buy a new unit, they call up the dieboard system
integrators and ask for quotations, only to find that these companies recommend
high-wattage lasers that often cost more than their total yearly sales!
Why are dieboard laser systems expensive? This question is of great concern to
jig die shops considering their first laser. There are several legitimate
reasons for the cost, and the systems on the market are highly productive. In
investigating the costs they’ve found that there’s not much difference
between the price on the high wattage system and the lower wattage system. With
the higher wattage system, the throughput capacity is more than doubled for a
relatively small percentage more cost. It would almost seem foolish not to buy
the more expensive machine. Never mind the fact that this unit could burn all
the work in the shop in less than two hours a day! Forced into purchasing
equipment designed for much larger companies, many shops place themselves into
financial jeopardy just to stay competitive. They enter the fiercely competitive
burned board marketplace in order to maintain the volume necessary to make
payments. Both profitability and quality are often compromised. Like the
man-eating plant in The Little Shoppe of Horrors, the laser demands to be fed!
Buying a New
Industrial Laser
Those of
entrepreneurial spirit may look at the possibility of buying a laser from a
manufacturer that sells industrial lasers for profile cutting. Basically, the
main components in the type of laser system used for cutting dieboard include
the laser unit (CO2), the optics system, the controller, the movement, the bed,
and peripheral systems (chillers, exhaust, gas supplies). To create the motion
necessary to burn patterns, either the laser must move in relation to the bed,
the bed must move, or the laser may move in one axis and the bed in the other.
Or, to economize motion, floor space, and manufacturing costs, "flying
optics" are often employed. The laser itself does not move, but the light
beam is directed via mirrors and focusing lenses to cut material across the
entire area of the bed. This is the typical configuration of the more economical
industrial lasers.
Industrial lasers have been used in many applications for many years. Cutting of
metal profiles is often done using the same brands of laser units used for
dieboard applications. However, such systems can often be purchased for
significantly less than equivalent dieboard systems. These systems perform well
in the applications for which they were designed, essentially to keep the
profile being cut within a certain tolerance. But the flying optic systems
adequate for cutting metal profiles are simply not designed produce a constant
kerf width on a piece of wood.
I never recommend these systems for dieboard applications. They too can create a
"little dieshop of horrors." A Midwestern company bought one of these
systems and found that they could only cut in a small area about 24" square
to achieve an acceptable kerf width.
Used Lasers
In order to
bring Laser capability in house at a lower cost, many diemakers consider used
dieboard lasers. But these units can cause horrors as well. Most used dieboard
lasers in the current market tend to be older units which were bought at high
prices and are now on the market because the company selling them needs to
recover those costs. Even if these units are in great shape (and they seldom
are), they are maintenance intensive designs. Unless it comes with an employee
experienced with that particular model, it can be very difficult to keep these
units working properly. In some cases these used units have placed great
hardship on the companies who bought them. Decent used dieboard lasers are
also hard to find because they are typically kept in service for long periods in
order to achieve optimum return on investment. Prices on these units also tended
to be relatively high, partly because of their scarcity, and partly because the
seller normally sets the price as a percentage of the original cost, which were
enormously higher a few short years ago. Because of these factors, I
seldom recommend that a shop buy a used unit as their first laser. Still, many
companies have chosen to buy used because they felt it was the only option their
budget would allow.
Buying burned
boards
A jig die shop
can begin selling laser-burned dies without investing in new equipment by buying
burned boards from a laser diemaker. Many jig shops now choosing this option buy
from a direct competitor. Often, the only alternative is to buy from a shop
outside the region, increasing shipping costs and turnaround time. Much
has been said recently about excess laser capacity in the U.S. I have heard
prices quoted as low as eight cents an inch! This has prompted some to ask
"Why buy a laser when burned boards are plentiful and cheap?" While it
is true that many shops are offering burned boards at very reasonable prices,
most companies purchase a laser for control. When you buy burned boards, even if
your competitor has the best intentions, you are still forced to depend on a
competitor for a critical part in the manufacturing process. This places you in
jeopardy of alienating customers because of factors outside your control.
Buying burned boards has another disadvantage. Turnaround times for many
customers have been reduced to 24 hours or less. Even with modem or email
transfers, burning boards elsewhere makes this difficult or even impossible to
accomplish.
Entry level
This places
the first-time laser buyer in a difficult position. All the options seem to be
less than ideal solutions, and buying a new dieboard system can put a shop at
the greatest risk. But why must this be? The reason most manufacturers
only offer these limited options is because they are simply system integrators.
They buy components and put them together into systems. They can only offer what
they can find for resale. Lowering their cost of just one component does not
allow them to substantially lower the cost of the entire system.
The industry has long needed an entry-level laser, one that is lower cost, easy
to learn and use, and less maintenance intensive. The investor should be able to
drop this product on the floor and immediately be productive and profitable
running in-house boards. Companies should be able to achieve the levels quality
and control, the very impetus for making such an investment, without having to
compromise these goals due to the immense volume of low-profit burn-only
business that a high-priced laser enjoins.
But it would be extremely difficult for system integrators to bring such a
product to market because they can only work with components that are currently
available. This product would have to be developed by a full-system
manufacturer... one that manufactures all the major components including the
laser unit, optics, controller, and bed... one with the capability to do the
research and development necessary to create a leaner, more cost effective
system which does not compromise on quality.
And now, such a product is available; The Lasercut PL600. The lower price of this
product makes is a feasible option for smaller companies, while the throughput
is still more than adequate to meet the current needs of these shops. As the
business grows they can either keep the unit as a backup for a higher powered
unit, or resell it at a competitive price. A healthy aftermarket will enable
even more shops to afford this type of equipment.
With the advent of the first entry-level laser, the market will change. Other
laser companies will probably follow the lead, offering entry level systems. As
with CAD systems just a few years ago, I predict we will find the in-house laser
becoming less and less the exception and increasingly the norm in the
diemaker’s shop.
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