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Fiber Lasers on Cost: Are They Overpriced?

The application of laser technology in manufacturing has seamlessly extended to automotive, aerospace, electronics, medical, and many other industries. Considering the popularity of using lasers for cutting, engraving, or even welding, it’s not surprising that fiber lasers are the benchmark of the industry. Despite having plenty of advantages like increased cutting speed, accuracy, and efficiency, fiber lasers are among the most expensive as well. What makes fiber lasers expensive?

This piece seeks to disentangle the reasons behind what many consider to be an exorbitant price tag when it comes to purchasing fiber lasers.

1. The Technology Behind Fiber Lasers

A fiber-optic laser’s active medium is a fiber-optic cable which contains fibers made of glass and doped with rare earth materials such as ytterbium. This doped fiber, when supplied with electrical current, will produce the laser beam. Components manufacturing — the fiber-optic ones in particular — requires higher quality and precision and intrinsically adds a substantial amount of cost to the system.

Precision Manufacturing:

Manufacturers producing fiber lasers need to have in their possession very precise components and materials – otherwise, performance of the laser will not be optimal. Optical fibers, as one of the optical parts, have to be made precisely to produce a good usable laser beam. Any kind of rough edges in the fiber can shorten its life and its laser; thus, manufacturers ought to shift a lot of resources on specialized equipment and quality control.

High-Power Components:

Unlike laser of the other kinds, this type is of more advanced in that it works on a higher power and possible greater efficiency. For the generation of the lasers, the optical fibers are reliable and are designed not to degrade even when the power is raised. This is necessitated by the need for materials with better optical characteristics which are usually expensive to acquire and process.

2. Advanced Cooling and Power Systems

Those who know fiber lasers would attest to one of the reasons why they’re so efficient – they can convert electrical energy supplied to the laser into light with very little energy being wasted in the process. Nevertheless, such high efficiency does not imply that there is no requirement for a complicated cooling system. A lot of heat is produced when fiber lasers are in action, and so to preserve their efficiency and not to damage the parts, these lasers do make use of means of cooling which can remove heat quickly and effectively.

Cooling Systems:

Most fiber laser systems require closed loop cooling systems. These recirculate a liquid coolant around the most important parts, ensuring the parts do not exceed optimal temperatures. But adding these cooling systems makes the system more complex, costly, and ultimately more reliable.

Power Supplies:

Due to the structure of fiber-laser systems, high quality power supply is crucial in ensuring consistent laser output. Due to high efficiency operation, these power supplies are expected to have high control over the laser output, both in regards to intensity and wavelength. However, these components can add the additional cost to the system.

3. High Efficiency and Performance

The very least of the weaknesses of a fiber laser is their energy efficiency. Fiber lasers have a stated efficiency of around up to 30% more efficiency than CO₂ lasers, meaning they have a higher rate of electrical energy into laser energy, decreasing average running costs over time. Still, the higher efficiency and system precision does come with a price.

Precision Engineering:

Fiber lasers demand sophisticated components such as lenses, mirrors and other high-order elements which have to be designed and manufactured to the highest precision ever to meet specific required laser beam parameters. Also, the complex structure and production of such optical parts with high-class coatings and materials lead to increased costs as well.

Laser Beam Quality:

Fiber lasers allow to produce one of the most focused and stable laser beams which is of the highest quality. Such beam quality makes it possible to carry out precision cutting and welding of components that have complex contours and require high accuracy of fit parts. The ability to produce such beam quality is associated with quite complex technology, which is used to control the shape, focus and divergence of the beam. The presence of this technology and its design increases the cost of the laser.

4. Long Life Span and Durability

Ease of maintenance and longevity are some of the main benefits associated with fiber laser technology. Fiber lasers have much less moving parts relative to traditional lasers such as CO2 lasers, also the lack of mirrors and lenses which have to be routinely re-aligned also makes fiber lasers have more operational reliability.

Solid-State Design:

Focusing on the core of the laser, in this case, a solid-state laser that has a relatively small area as compared to other laser designs, the fiber laser is also less susceptible to damage. The fiber-optic technology employed in these machines is fairly strong and has a high tolerance to wear and tear making the usefulness of a fiber laser system worth the investment in terms of durability. Nonetheless, this high durability calls for investments in high-quality materials and advanced manufacturing technologies.

Minimal Maintenance:

Maintenance is one of the concerns for industrial application, fiber lasers generally require lower maintenance than the traditional laser systems. On the flip side, specialized parts, quality design, and/or engineering meant to reduce maintenance impacts the overall cost.

5. Research and Development Costs

Apart from the manufacturing cost, the deployment of the technology entails a significant amount of time and resources for research and development fiver laser technology is quite extensive and is classified as a research and Development (R&D) type of activity. For decades, manufacturers have channeled millions of dollars in resources towards the optimization of the fiber strength, performance, and efficiency. With such consistent improvements, the end outcome is a better well-designed product but the expenditure on R&D contributes to the overall cost of the end product.

Advanced Technology Trends

The newest technology in laser systems is the fiber laser. This means that every game-changer has to come up with increasingly newer technology, better applications, or higher precision in cutting. The costs of employing skilled engineers and performing tests to enhance efficiency are usually included in the selling price of the products.

Intellectual Property Rights of Patenting and Licensing

As other technological products, fiber laser products are patented, meaning laser fiber producers stack many of these technologies in production. Or, incurring the costs of licensing these patents or using exclusive technologies does add to total production cost.

6. Market Need and Specificity

The areas which require laser applications include aerospace, automotive, electronics, and medical devices, among other industries which collectively have a high demand for fiber lasers. It also means that as the level of demand for fiber lasers increases, manufacturers will have to grow the output level which means more money is spent on the machineries, labor and the raw materials. Economies of scale might assist in reducing the costs, however the customization which comes in set for specific applications raise prices even further.

Customization and Configurations:

Most fiber laser systems will always have some customization options which can be the size or power level features or even some features that may be required by the customer. Customization can make the manufacturing process more complex as well as cause an increase in additional costs, especially when it comes to highly specialized applications. Fiber laser machines come in a number of configurations as well, which may include fiber laser markers, cutters or welders – each of these may warrant its own specialized components which in turn escalate costs.

Conclusion

High costs of fiber lasers can be attributed to a combination of advanced technology, precision engineering, high-quality components as well as customization options. They perform better, consume lesser energy, can last for long with little or no maintenance, hence considered a worthy investment for many fields. Although the first investment may be massive, the end results, which comes in terms of improved cutting speed, increased precision and low costs, means that using fiber lasers would be a good decision for manufacturers in the long run.

As technology advances and the production processes become more mature, we should anticipate the prices of fiber lasers to steadily fall as they become more widespread among manufacturers from diverse industries. For the time being, however, their considerable cost mirrors the state-of-the-art nature of the technology and the performance it provides.