Development Trend And Prospect Of Fiber Laser Cutting Machine

In 2014, laser cutting applications became mainstream. The 500W power laser of the year quickly became the darling of the market. It then quickly evolved into kilowatts of power to 1500W.

Before 2016, the world's major laser equipment manufacturers believed that 6KW could solve most of the cutting needs. However, in the second half of the year, Han's Laser took the lead in launching an 8KW laser cutting machine, which opened the competition for laser equipment power improvement.

In 2017, the 10,000-watt laser cutting machine was born, and the Chinese fiber laser cutting machine market began to move towards the 10,000-watt era, and even the subsequent 20,000-watt and 30,000-watt lasers came into being. fiber lasers, like a race. It is difficult to say whether the demand for laser processing drives the power of the laser, or whether the increase in the power of the laser promotes the ultra-high-power laser equipment.

In this round of laser cutting equipment power competition, Chinese manufacturers are clearly leading the world, even earlier than foreign giants. Until a certain exhibition in Shanghai in 2019, the major cutting equipment companies were still scrambling to launch 20KW equipment, and even claimed to have 30KW equipment, which seemed to be a bit obsessed with power chasing.

There is no denying that domestic brands such as Raycus, MAX, JPT and other companies have continuously launched fiber lasers above 10,000 watts. Foreign IPG, nLight and SPI are also advancing, making important contributions to the development of fiber lasers and opening up opportunities for laser processing. more application space and possibilities. It is not denied that the increase in power will bring about higher processing efficiency. For the same thickness of metal plate, the most popular 12KW laser cutting machine with ultra-high power, its processing speed efficiency is almost twice that of 6KW. With the continuous improvement of the performance and efficiency of high-power fiber lasers, the efficiency of laser processing has been greatly improved, and generalized tools may be manufactured for large-scale production in the future.

However, we must see that most of the metal materials with a thickness of more than 40 mm appear in high-end equipment, large components, and special fields and special applications. Most common products in life and industrial manufacturing require laser processing within 20 mm, which is precisely the range of 2000 to 8000 watt lasers. On the one hand, we see that foreign companies do not deliberately pursue rendering 10,000-watt cutting equipment, but focus on recommending appropriate power according to the user's processing conditions. On the other hand, we have also seen that users are gradually becoming rational, and market choices gradually show that the growth in shipments of cutting equipment above 10,000 watts has not reached expectations, but instead, the medium and high power 2KW to 8KW has increased rapidly.

Laser manufacturers are still working hard to increase the power of the light source, but having this power capability does not mean that the market can form batches. In addition, whether the power carrying of optical devices and supporting integrated products can be followed up is also a big problem. In addition, to increase the processing speed is not to blindly increase the power, but also to work hard on mechanical factors such as integrated machine tools, control systems, motion tables, and full-body design. Users are very aware of their product and processing needs, and they will eventually rationally choose a power segment that suits their application. What they value most is the stability of high-power machines and the ability to continue processing.

Today, the laser processing power has formed a pyramid-like layering. At the top of the pyramid, the ultra-high-power parts above 10KW account for a minority, and the power level will be higher and higher. The medium and high power part from 3KW to 10KW is currently the fastest growing field. Bottom applications belong to the cutting market below 2KW. Returning to practical applications, the batch of ultra-high power is not large. At the real application level, the consumption of 2000-8000W is returning rapidly.

In the next five years or so, the market structure of laser cutting will change to "small at both ends and big in the middle". Because small and medium-power CW lasers are very cheap at present, it is very easy for 3KW and 4KW equipment to cannibalize 1KW or 1.5KW, but it is not so easy to cannibalize 3KW, 4KW and 6KW above 12KW .

The laser industry is an industry with obvious globalization characteristics. In medium and high power applications, 3KW to 12KW is still the most noteworthy. The main reason is that this power segment can meet most processing needs, has formed a mature and complete industrial chain in the market, and is cost-effective in general application scenarios. Therefore, it is foreseeable that in the next few years, the medium and high power market capacity will be the largest.