Jul 31 2008
SPI Lasers, a leading designer and manufacturer of fiber lasers, today announced that its latest products will double in power and control capability, enabling customers to cut and weld materials with faster process times and with more advanced control options than ever before. SPI has increased its air-cooled lasers from 100 to 200W power and water cooled from 200 to 400W power, whilst also creating unique laser control functions offering direct application benefits across a wide range of laser machining applications.
“The power, versatility and control capabilities of SPI’s R4 Platform Products make them the most advanced high power fiber lasers on the market today, enabling ground breaking process improvements.” said Andy Appleyard, Product Line Manager for High Power Laser Systems.
New features on the R4 laser platform include XPR (Extended Performance Range) and PSE (Pulse Shape Equalization). These new features build upon SPI’s traditional market leading performance in CW laser stability and superior modulation rate (CW to 100KHz). XPR allows a high power laser to be switched to operate at average powers down to <1% of the maximum rated output power, a factor of ten improvement over SPI’s closest competitors. The PSE feature overcomes the traditional laser problem of first pulse over or under-shoot. PSE ensures the first pulse is as useable as the any other in the pulse train.
SPI’s trials in their US applications laboratory and also at advance customer sites indicate significant process improvements in a number of key cutting, welding and engraving laser applications. The SPI design team set out to enable their global customer base to achieve lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and a faster return on investment, something that manufacturing industry strives for in all sectors. We envisage the new features becoming fundamental to many applications beyond straight forward cutting or welding and the initial demand that we are seeing is suggesting that our customers are as convinced as we are.
David Parker, Chief Executive Officer of SPI Lasers, welcomed the releases; “It is clear that the fiber laser is now an accepted tool of choice in many applications. The 400W laser enables SPI to participate in a wide number of new fields, notably in the welding arena. The new features have come about as a direct response to customer feedback. They are designed to further enhance end user product quality and processing yields, the improvement of which is a key focus area for our customers especially in the prevailing economic situation.”
A proof of concept and ‘try before you buy’ program can be found by clicking on the SPI web site at www.spilasers.com and registering your details on the ‘Try before you buy’ page.