Looking for options for replacement of Potomac Laser Mill

My employer is looking at replacing our Potomac laser mill. The laser on it is basically dead and people much more knowledgeable about lasers than me have determined that rebuilding the laser is not an option and replacing the laser on a 20 something year old machine may not be a good idea, if even possible.

I will freely admit that I know nothing about lasers other than how to program and run this specific machine. This machine has been used to cut materials such as stainless, brass, tungsten, kapton, etc, in thicknesses from .0005in to a practical max of .005in. Anything beyond that starts exponentially increasing the number of passes required. The machine uses a camera with crosshairs to locate the work piece and set the focal length, and appears to be capable repeatability better than 5 micron (.0002in). I am not sure that this level of precision is required for most of the work we do with this machine but occasionally it is useful.

I really have no idea where to start looking for a machine of similar capabilities and what the price range would be. I know the Potomac laser mill we currently have was $325,000ish 20 years ago but I don't know if prices would have come down any.

If current lasers would allow us to cut thicker materials without losing the ability to cut thin materials that would be fantastic but most of what this machine has been used for is prototype circuits, vapor deposition masks, and making tiny reaction wells.

If there is any other information that would be helpful please let me know and I will try to provide it.

I put this in the generals subforum since it didn't seem to fit with the fabrication subforum but if there is a better place please move it.

Thanks in advance.

You don't state what size table/travels you need.

But you can't beat a FOBA. Camera system for part recognition, easy programming, lots of options, good lasers.

I believe the old laser was about 8"x8" travels. Most of the work we do we stick down to 100mmx100mm alumina plattens so something bigger than that should be fine.

Well, I take that back. I was under the impression that FOBA did laser cutting as well as marking, but it looks like they're only for marking.

Nevermind.

Trumpf for the win. Their fiber lasers are hands down the best for a mainstream laser setup. Up to 6MM thick cutting. I used their fiber lasers for marking in production but occasionally would use it for cutting. We bought OEM heads and controllers and built our own machines.

I looked at Trumpf's website and all machines I saw were much larger than we need. Does Trumpf make smaller machines? I looked today and our old laser mill has a work envelope of 200mm x 200mm

kenton said:

I looked at Trumpf's website and all machines I saw were much larger than we need. Does Trumpf make smaller machines? I looked today and our old laser mill has a work envelope of 200mm x 200mm

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You should give them a call. The OEM head we bought had a 100MM X 100MM steerable beam. No axis motion. They had larger work areas but that was beyond our needs. Software was Windows based. Very easy to use. We built the head into an aluminum extrusion enclosure with laser safe polycarb windows. The OEM head is the laser head and controller only, no machine.

I went to the Potomac laser website.

They mention one micron accuracy (0.0000394"). This seems well beyond the capabilities of 99.9% of the lasers out there.

Have a look at their samples page: Potomac Laser Gallery Micromachining, and Small Hole Drilling



The following has holes cut that are too small to be seen by the unaided eye:



Until they are backlit.

David_M said:

I went to the Potomac laser website.

They mention one micron accuracy (0.0000394"). This seems well beyond the capabilities of 99.9% of the lasers out there.

Have a look at their samples page: Potomac Laser Gallery Micromachining, and Small Hole Drilling

The following has holes cut that are too small to be seen by the unaided eye:

Until they are backlit.

Click to expand...

Holy chit.

That's awesome.

You might want to contact IPG Photonics and discus your needs with them.

David_M said:

I went to the Potomac laser website.

They mention one micron accuracy (0.0000394"). This seems well beyond the capabilities of 99.9% of the lasers out there.

Have a look at their samples page: Potomac Laser Gallery Micromachining, and Small Hole Drilling

The following has holes cut that are too small to be seen by the unaided eye:

Until they are backlit.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't be surprised if the old machine we have was rated for 1 micron accuracy when new, the machine would let you move it in .1 micron increments. I am not sure we needed that level of accuracy though.

One of the problems is that Potomac now only does laser machining, they no longer sell machines.

kenton said:

<snipped> One of the problems is that Potomac now only does laser machining, they no longer sell machines.

Click to expand...

Can they make any recommendations for your situation? Do they have a well-versed retiree that could possibly repair your laser?

David_M said:

Can they make any recommendations for your situation? Do they have a well-versed retiree that could possibly repair your laser?

Click to expand...

From what I understand, no. I believe they got out of the laser mill sales business over a decade ago and the laser itself is a long obsolete model. Retrofits were discussed but, the money people didn't want to dump money into an old unsupported orphan laser mill.