The boom in fiber lasers that began several years ago has led to the proliferation of manufacturers of fiber laser cutting machines and other core devices using fiber laser as a power source. The majority of these new names in the fiber laser cutting market are of manufacturers that are based in China. Despite what many say about products originating from China, we are seeing more and more of products manufactured in China being sold locally. Excluding the US, this is happening worldwide. These companies have been very progressive and aggressive in their manufacturing and marketing strategies and are making inroads. Price has a lot to do with it but not everything.

Both for metal forming and shaping equipment, besides many other forms of industrial equipment, the strategy for the Chinese manufacturers has been to use well-known international brands for the core of the equipment and the critical components that make the equipment or product operate.

Today this strategy might not be the case for all Chinese manufacturers though. Engineers, technicians and students from China have studied and worked worldwide and many have returned home filled with knowledge and technical know-how across many disciplines. China’s engineering capabilities are at the core of its economic success and technological leadership. As of 2024, China’s focus on engineering is a multifaceted strategy, incorporating robust university education, extensive vocational training, and industry-focused policies.

China’s engineering prowess underpins its global economic and technological leadership. Engineering talent fuels a wide variety of sectors, from traditional manufacturing to cutting-edge technologies. This foundation has led to the rapid expansion of China’s high-tech industries and its continued dominance in manufacturing and infrastructure.

This is underpinned by the number of high-quality European manufacturers that have ties with Chinese manufacturers, either through ownership or partnerships. This has ultimately led to technology transfer and coupled with the returning citizens, technologies and equipment that was once the domain of international manufacturers is now found and is being produced in China.

Raycus Laser is one of many companies that have evolved in China. They are unique in that they entered an industry where there are very few players – the manufacture and development of fiber laser power sources. In fact, besides themselves there is only one other player worth noting in China.

The company was only established in the early 2000s but has grown to become one of the major players in the fiber laser industry. It is said that in South Africa alone it already has 4 500 systems operating. Included amongst this number are the fiber lasers used for cutting metal.

Two important, interrelated developments have helped move fiber lasers from lab curiosity to serious commercial contender in the past decade. The creation of high-power laser diodes that boost the lasers’ pump power enough to compete with other lasers, particularly less efficient lamp-pumped systems, and market advancements that have made those diodes more affordable and reliable.

Key advantages of fiber lasers include high (near-diffraction-limited) beam quality, high-power generation, high reliability, low jitter and amplitude noise, turnkey operation and small size.

As fiber lasers have continued to grow in output power, they have increasingly become used in materials processing applications such as marking, printing, welding and cutting, as well as for micromachining, drilling, soldering and annealing, among others.

It was only in the early 2000s that fiber laser technology debuted. Its adoption rate exploded by the middle of the last decade. Without the need to worry about mirror or lens cleaning, bellow checks, and beam alignments, fabricators found a new cutting tool that required little maintenance and that cost about half of what a CO2 system cost to run.

The story of high-powered fiber laser technology is about decreasing process time in laser cutting.
That’s why we are seeing not just service centres buying high-powered laser cutting machines but also metal fabricators who use the technology only for their own use. They can get parts off the laser bed faster and cheaper than they ever could before.

Raycus Laser is based in the industrial area of Wuhan, a town that is more infamous for its involvement in the pandemic. Its official name is Wuhan Raycus Fiber Laser Technologies Co Ltd. The company was established in 2007. In China the company has successively developed the first 10W pulse fiber laser, the first 25W pulse fiber laser, the first 100W continuous fiber laser, the first 1 000W continuous fiber laser, the first 4 000W continuous fiber laser product and the first 6 000W continuous fiber laser product.

Raycus provides various fiber laser products and applications for laser manufacturing equipment integrators, and provides technical R&D services and customised products. It can produce 30 000 pulse fiber lasers and 10 000 continuous fiber lasers of medium and high-power in a year. The fiber lasers sources produced by the company account for 30% of domestic market share and they are exported to Asia, Europe, America, the Middle East and other regions.

The company has established service outlets to provide customers with strong after-sales service. Raycus have already set up overseas service centres in countries such as Turkey, Italy, Germany, South Korea, Thailand, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Brazil, India and Vietnam.

Now the company has appointed African Laser Solutions to sell and service its products in South Africa. African Laser Solutions is headed up by Chris van Aswegan. The company is based in Wadeville, Gauteng. Van Aswegan has been in the laser cutting business since 1996 with the majority of these years servicing and installing well-known brands of laser cutting machines that have been imported from Europe, Italy and China.

More recently van Aswegan has been importing fiber laser cutting machines from China and has a number of success stories of where he has installed some high-powered machines. He has largely been representing the Penta and Hans Laser brands but is also very knowledgeable on many of the other brands that are being imported from China.

“I would say that many of the imported machines from China these days are equipped with the Raycus power source. It used to be the well-known IPG source that was dominant but that has changed, especially those machines that are imported from China,” said van Aswegan.

“Since I went out on my own in 2020, we have grown every year and are now well-equipped with staff and spares to service most laser machines. My technical expertise on these machines extends back 26 years and I have been to visit the international OEM manufacturers’ facilities. So we have built up a huge amount of experience and know-how.”

“We look forward to representing Raycus in South Africa. They needed someone on the ground here and someone with the technical knowledge.”

For further details contact Chris van Aswegan of African Laser Solutions on 060 518 4453 or 071 150 1726 or visit www.raycuslaser.com