Blog Greater Revenue and Same Floor Space With a Fiber Laser Compared to a CO2 Laser Machine

As a shop owner, executive, or manager, one of your many priorities includes evaluating existing machines on the shop floor and when necessary, replacing them with newer, more efficient, and productive machinery.

Shop floor space is finite unless of course you expand or move. Every available square foot of production area should be seen as an opportunity to produce maximum revenue for the business. Is the current machinery on your shop floor, such as CO2 laser machine or fiber laser cutting machine, the most effective use for that workspace?

Replacing Legacy Equipment

If you are currently operating legacy CO2 laser machines how productive are they within that square footage? By replacing a single CO2 machine with a new fiber laser cutting machine you will already produce from 2x to over 4x the volume of parts per unit of time and space, and certainly generate greater revenue for the business.

If you are running multiple CO2 machines, they can also be replaced with a single fiber laser. Now you have more available floor space that can become home to additional revenue-generating equipment like an automation system or an additional fiber laser machine.

New Equipment:

High-Power Fiber Lasers Instead of CO2 Laser Machines

Perhaps you have legacy laser cutting machines in the single-digit kW range. Or maybe you still use CO2 laser machines?

With new high-power fiber lasers like the 30kW, the equation becomes even more interesting.

But are they the most effective use of that available area?
Could you produce more parts per square foot with a 20 or 30kW machine?

Yes, absolutely, and again you could replace CO2 laser machines as well as multiple single-digit kW lasers with a single high-power 20kW or 30kW fiber laser cutting machine. This also reduces operating costs if you use and maintain fewer machines.

Adding Material Handling and Material Storage Towers

Storing raw materials on the shop floor wastes a lot of expensive lateral real estate that is prime production floor space that can create additional revenue for the business. It is also an inefficient use of employee time, especially if you need to access the material when it is located behind another machine or stack of material.

Instead of lateral storage, materials can be stored in vertical towers containing automated shelves. Accessing the materials is just a click away with your automated material tower or warehousing system with delivery directly to the required machine location. Maintaining materials at the ready is essential to maintaining a consistent pace of production and reducing non-productive time. Material storage towers can serve single machines or multiple machines.

Generating Maximum Revenue

with Fiber Lasers Instead of CO2 Laser Machines

Maximizing the revenue per square foot of available floor space is an essential exercise for all shop owners. Realize a lower cost per part and additional revenue by producing 2x to 4x more parts within the same space thanks to fiber lasers with higher powers.

Evaluating existing equipment usage on the shop floor often leads to freeing up additional floor space which can be used to increase efficiency and revenue by adding new high-productivity machines and material automation. Producing normal workloads in less than half the original time will create additional machine capacity to produce more parts and the ability to expand to additional markets to grow your business.