Fiber lasers drive industry revolution
The great development of Fiber Laser Cutting Machines in the past decade has been the most revolutionary technological breakthrough in the laser industry, with particularly rapid development in the Chinese market. From the earlier days when pulsed fiber laser marking quickly swept the marking market, to the rapid release of fiber laser applications for metal cutting after 2014. The capability of fiber lasers has made a big splash in industrial processing applications and has now become the most dominant type of industrial laser, accounting for more than 55% of the total worldwide, with a wide range of applications in all areas. Laser processing technologies such as laser welding, laser cutting, laser marking and laser cleaning have combined to drive the overall laser industry market.
Fiber Laser Cutting Machines
Fiber laser equipment power enhancement race and development path
It is understood that the trend of laser processing showing high power development is also very obvious, constantly exploring the limits of cutting thickness. Data show that fiber lasers have become the mainstream of cutting applications since the overall installed average power of the market has increased year by year.
In 2014, laser cutting applications became mainstream. The 500W power laser of that year quickly became the market darling. This was followed by a rapid evolution to kilowatt power to 1500W.
Until 2016, major global laser equipment manufacturers believed that 6KW had been able to solve the vast majority of cutting needs. But in the second half of the year, GrandTech Laser took the lead in launching 8KW laser cutting machines, kicking off the race to increase the power of laser equipment.
In 2017, the 10,000-watt laser cutting machine came out of nowhere, and China's 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, and domestic and foreign laser manufacturers kept launching higher-powered fiber lasers, just like a race. Whether it is laser processing demand to promote the laser power, or laser power to promote the ultra-high power laser equipment, has been difficult to say.
The choice of the market and rational thinking
In this round of laser cutting equipment power competition, Chinese manufacturers are obviously leading the world, even earlier than foreign giants. Until an exhibition in Shanghai in 2019, the main cutting equipment companies are still scrambling to launch 20KW, and even claim to have 30KW equipment, which seems to be a bit of a brain fever to indulge in power chasing.
There is no denying that to domestic brands Rike, Chuangxin, Jephte, Fibo, Guozhi and other companies continue to launch more than 10,000 watts fiber laser, foreign IPG, nLight and SPI are also advancing, making an important contribution to the development of fiber lasers, but also for laser processing to open up more application space and possibilities. There is also no denying that the increase in power leads to higher processing efficiency. For the same thickness of the metal plate, with the current ultra-high power of the most popular 12KW laser cutting machine, the processing speed efficiency is almost twice as fast as 6KW. As the efficiency of high power fiber laser performance continues to improve, prompting a significant increase in laser processing efficiency, or will be a universal tool for the future of mass production manufacturing.
However, we must see that in the thickness of more than 40 mm of metal materials, mostly in high-end equipment, large components, as well as special areas, special applications. The vast majority of common products in life and industrial manufacturing have laser processing needs within 20 mm, which is precisely the range of 2000 to 6000 watt lasers. On the one hand, we see that foreign companies such as TongFast, Bystronic, Mitsubishi, Tenda, Mazak, etc. are not deliberately pursuing the rendering of 10,000 watts of cutting equipment, but focus on recommending the right power according to the user's processing situation. On the other hand, we also see the user gradually become rational, the market choice gradually shows that the growth in shipments of cutting equipment above 10,000 watts has not reached expectations, but rather a rapid rise in medium and high power 2KW to 6KW.
Laser Cutting Machine Manufacturers are still working hard to improve the power of the light source, but with this power capability does not mean that the market can form a batch, in addition to optics and supporting the power of integrated products to carry the follow-up is also a major problem. In addition, to improve the processing speed is not just to increase the power, but also from the integrated machine tool, control system, motion table, the full body design and other mechanical factors to work. Users are very clear about their own products and processing needs, they will eventually choose rationally in line with their own application of the power band, they are actually the most important is the stability of high power machine, the ability to continue processing.
Today, the laser processing power has formed a pyramidal stratification, at the top of the pyramid, ultra-high power part of 10KW above the minority, its power level will be increasingly high. And the middle and high power section 2KW to 8KW is the fastest growing area. The bottom application belongs to the cutting market below 2KW. Back to the actual application, the ultra-high power batch is not large, and at the real application level, the 2000-6000 watt usage is returning rapidly.
This pyramid structure is not static, I predict that in the next five years or so, the domestic laser cutting market structure will change to "two small, large middle". Because the current small and medium power continuous laser has been very cheap, for procurement cost considerations, 3KW, 4KW equipment to nibble 1KW or 1.5KW is very easy, but 12KW above to nibble 3KW, 4KW and 6KW are not so easy to promote.
Tevatron's advance layout of the future of the medium and high power laser market
The Laser Cutting Industry is an industry with obvious globalization characteristics. 2020 new crown pneumonia epidemic rampant, so many laser companies' orders suffered a waterloo. A concomitant phenomenon is that the epidemic has dealt a blow to user investment confidence, people's investment tends to be conservative, and the average power of factory laser equipment has dropped very fast.
However, in April, China's epidemic basically receded, the rapid recovery of various industries, coupled with the national policies to support the increase in demand for laser manufacturing rebounded rapidly. In the medium and high power applications, 2000 to 6000 watts is still the most worthy of attention. The reason mainly lies in the fact that this power band can meet most of the processing needs, a mature and complete industry chain has been formed in the market, and the cost performance is high in generalized application scenarios. Therefore, it is foreseeable that in the next few years, the medium and high power market capacity is the largest.
