We have been looking into upgrading our laser machines in the near future and have heard that a 150 watt Chinese machine will cut just as fast as say a 150 Watt kern Laser or Trotec. This just doesn't seem to make sense to me, a $15,000 - $25,000 metal laser tube is gonna preform the same as a $1200 glass tube ?? Why would kern and trotec use metal and ceramic tubes then ??
Im pretty sure Glass tubes loss power gradually over the life of the tube and metal tubes do not ?? (Might be wrong) If this is true than day one the assumption might be true but a month later there would be a clear difference. My current machines make me think this is true when the tubes were new we could cut at 14 mm/s - Now we are at about 9 mm/s. For a hobbyist this would be fine but for our production shop this just means higher labor cost and more time per item.
We have been looking at Kerns DHS (Dual Head Laser Cutter) and if the above statement is true why would they even sell this model of machine ??
We really just want to make sure we are moving in the right direction because its a large investment. We could buy 17 of our current machine for the same price, all we use our lasers for is cutting 1/4" Wood and acrylic parts. We have been happy with our imported machines (For the price) but we can see a clear issue with quality of the machines .
Thanks for the Help