The great development of fiber lasers in the past decade is the most revolutionary technological breakthrough in the laser industry, especially in the Chinese market. From the early pulse fiber laser marking machine rapidly sweeping the marking market, to the fast and large-scale application of fiber laser in metal cutting after 2014. The capability of fiber laser is brilliant in industrial processing and application. At present, it has become the most important type of industrial laser, accounting for more than 55% in the world and widely used in all aspects. Laser processing technologies such as laser welding machine, laser cutting machine, laser marking machine and laser cleaning machine have jointly promoted the development of the entire laser industry market.

China is the most important fiber laser market in the world, with the current market sales accounting for about 60% of the world. The installed capacity is also second to none in the world. The installed capacity of pulsed fiber lasers has already exceeded 200000, and the installed capacity of continuous lasers is nearly 30000. For example, IPG, nlight, SPI and other major foreign manufacturers all regard China as the most important market, and in fact, their sales in the Chinese market account for more than 40% of their company's performance.

Power improvement competition and development path of fiber laser equipment

It is understood that the trend of high-power laser processing is also very obvious, and the limit of cutting thickness is constantly explored. The data show that the average installed power of the whole market has increased year by year since the fiber laser became the mainstream of cutting applications.

In 2014, laser cutting application became the mainstream. The 500W power laser of that year quickly became the darling of the market. And then rapidly evolved into a kilowatt power of 1500 W. Before 2016, the world's major laser equipment manufacturers believed that 6kW could solve most of the cutting needs. However, in the second half of the year, one of Chinese laser manufacturer took the lead in launching 8kw laser cutting machine, which opened the competition for power improvement of laser equipment. In 2017, the 10kW laser cutting machine was born, and China's fiber laser cutting machine market began to move towards the 10kW era. Even the subsequent 20kW and 30kW lasers came into being. Domestic and foreign laser manufacturers continued to introduce higher power fiber lasers, just like a race. It is difficult to say whether the laser processing demand drives the laser power or the laser power improvement drives the ultra-high power laser equipment.

Market selection 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 a certain exhibition in Shanghai in 2019, major cutting equipment enterprises were still scrambling to launch 20kW equipment, and even claimed to own 30kW equipment, which seemed to be a little crazy in power chasing.

It is undeniable that domestic brands continue to launch fiber lasers above 10000 watt level, and foreign IPG, nlight and SPI are also advancing, which have made important contributions to the development of fiber lasers and opened up more application space and possibilities for laser processing. We also do not deny that the increase of power will bring higher processing efficiency. For metal plates of the same thickness, the most popular 12KW laser cutter  with ultra-high power at present has a processing speed and efficiency almost twice that of 6kW. With the continuous improvement of the performance and efficiency of high-power fiber laser, the laser processing efficiency has been greatly improved, or it will provide a universal tool for mass production in the future.

However, we must see that metal materials with a thickness of more than 40mm mostly appear in high-end equipment, large components, special fields and special applications. For most common products in life and industrial manufacturing, the laser processing demand is within 20mm, which is exactly the range of 2000-8000 watt lasers. On the one hand, we can see that foreign enterprises such as tongkuai, Tiantian, Mazak and so on do not deliberately pursue rendering 10000 watt cutting equipment, but focus on recommending appropriate power according to the processing situation of users. On the other hand, we also see that users have gradually become rational, and the market choices have gradually shown that the growth of the shipment of cutting equipment above 10000 watts has not reached the expectation, but the medium and high power of 2kW to 8kw has increased rapidly.

Laser manufacturers are still trying to improve the light source power, but having this power capability does not mean that the market can form a batch. In addition, whether the power bearing of optical devices and supporting integrated products can follow up is also a big problem. In addition, to improve the processing speed, it is not necessary to blindly increase the power, but also to work hard from the mechanical factors such as the integrated machine tool, control system, moving table and whole body design. Users are very clear about their products and processing needs. They will ultimately rationally choose the power segment that meets their application. What they value most is the stability and continuous processing ability of high-power machines.

Today, the laser processing power has formed a pyramid like layer. At the top of the pyramid, the ultra-high power part above 10kW accounts for a small number, and its power level will be higher and higher. The medium and high power part 3KW to 10kW is the fastest developing field at present. The bottom application belongs to the cutting market below 2kW. Returning to the actual application, the ultra-high power batch is not large. At the real application level, the consumption of 2000-8000 watts is rapidly returning.

This pyramid structure is not static. The author estimates that in the next five years or so, the domestic laser cutter market structure will change to "small at both ends and large in the middle". Because small and medium power CW lasers are already very cheap at present, it is easy for 3KW and 4kw equipment to nibble at 1kW or 1.5KW due to the purchase cost, but it is not so easy to nibble at 3KW, 4kw and 6kW above 12KW.

The laser industry is an industry with obvious global characteristics. The rampant COVID-19 epidemic from 2020 to 2022 has made the orders of many laser enterprises suffer a Waterloo. A subsequent phenomenon is that the epidemic has hit the confidence of users in investment, people's investment tends to be conservative, and the average power of laser equipment leaves the factory drops very fast.

However, in May, the epidemic situation in China has basically subsided, various industries have recovered rapidly, and with the increase of various national policies, the demand for laser machine has rebounded rapidly. In medium and high power applications, 3000 to 8000 watts are still the most noteworthy. The main reason is that this power segment can meet most processing needs, has formed a mature and complete industrial chain in the market, and has a high cost performance ratio in the general application scenario. Therefore, it can be predicted that the medium and high power market capacity will be the largest in the next few years.

About HGTECH: HGTECH is the pioneer and leader of laser industrial application in China, and the authoritative provider of global laser processing solutions. We have comprehensively arranged laser intelligent equipment, measurement and automation production lines, and smart factory construction to provide overall solutions for intelligent manufacturing.