Users’ Perspectives: Laser Welders
Compiled by John Shanahan

If you’re looking to add a laser welder to your operation, you’ll be glad to know that you’re not alone. With the size of equipment and prices both coming down while the range of applications is continuously broadening, the idea of investing in laser technology is being considered by more designers, manufacturers, and manufacturing retailers every day. Like any good investment, however, the purchase of a laser can be made easier by listening to industry peers who’ve already bought one.

We interviewed users of various laser welders tailor-made for the jewelry industry to find out what influenced their decision to purchase a specific machine, its advantages and drawbacks, and the service they’ve received from the product suppliers. Their personal experiences with machine operation, technical support, and service will help you to ask the right questions when considering this all-important equipment buying decision.

ALS-35s
Five years ago, when Sara Grinnell of Studio C Designs in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, was considering buying a laser, she wasn’t just looking for the one that would help her do repair and custom design work. “It seemed like all the lasers could perform similar tasks and all cost about the same,” she said. When she came to the ALS-35S from B&D Sales, however, she’d found the one thing she was looking for that would convince her to buy: service. “Most parts are covered under warranty,” she says of her machine. “If anything needs to be replaced, B&D’s tech support staff fly out to replace it.” That and the company’s annual on-site maintenance call have made her a happy laser user.

She calls their tech support “awesome—above and beyond any company I’ve dealt with. They walk me through [any problems] and if they think it’s something I need a part for, they send it out next-day.” In fact, at one point just before Christmas, a computer board on the machine went bad. B&D got Grinnell a replacement the next day and helped her install it herself while tech support was on the other end of the phone line.

Of the ALS-35S itself, Grinnell has similar words of praise, citing its speed and accuracy. “We do repairs on the spot without having to mask off for soldering,” she says. “We do the weld on the spot for the customer, clean it, and hand it back to them.”

That’s how service begets service.

Starweld Microwelder
The word Michael Dickey of Michael Dickey Designs in Redlands, California, uses to describe his Rofin-Baasel StarWeld Microwelder is “workhorse.” Citing its “robust design,” Dickey notes that in the five years he’s owned the StarWeld, there’s been very little downtime. “You do yearly maintenance and let it go,” he says.

Dickey says his shop probably runs its laser more than the average store, doing repair and manufacturing across a wide variety of applications and for various commercial clients. “We give it as good a workout as anyone and it’s held up for us,” he says. (In fact, during this interview, the laser could be heard clicking away in the background.)

What sold him on the StarWeld in the first place was the fact that Stuller backs the brand. That kind of endorsement, combined with knowing that Rofin-Baasel makes lasers for a broad spectrum of industries, convinced him to go that route. The decision has paid off not only in robustness, but in service as well. “Anytime I’ve had questions, I can get ahold of somebody and get answers in short order,” he says. “And 90 percent of what’s gone wrong has been operator error. They’ve been able to ask, ‘Did you do X, Y, or Z?’ because they’ve had it happen before. And replacement parts have been easy to get ahold of. I’ve only had to wait once. It’s there the next morning if you’re willing to pay for it.”

Neutec PulsePoint
Charles Restivo of Restivo Designs in New York City may be a laser rookie, but it’s taken only these past few months of owning his Neutec PulsePoint to realize he chose wisely. Because he focuses on delicate antique restoration work, he’s found the laser’s infinite settings to be infinitely useful.

“There’s only so much we can do with a torch,” he says of his shop’s work. “The laser opens up such a venue of possibilities to let us do fine work with no danger of damaging the jewelry.” He points to a recent job where he put posts in South Sea pearls as a prime example. “You can’t do that with a torch, unless you really like marshmallows,” he says.

For Restivo, the major selling point of the Neutec machine was its variable power settings. The ability to fully control the wattage and the milliseconds the beam is on the piece allows him to bring the laser to an exact point for the job at hand. Restivo also likes the PulsePoint’s diversity of quality components. “They took the best German optics, Italian electronics, and American engineering and packaged [them] together into what I think is one of the best high-end machines on the market.”

Service is also A-plus, he says, with quick response time and ready availability of parts. It doesn’t take a newbie to appreciate that.

Crafford—LaserStar workstation
Aron Suna of Suna Bros. in New York City says that the biggest problem with having a Crafford—LaserStar laser welder in his shop is that his workers get a bit competitive about who gets to use it next.

“We do a lot of platinum repair,” he says. “We use it to fill in porosity, assemble bracelets, do prong repair. It’s used every which way here. There’s someone sitting at it all day, and the guys are usually fighting over who uses it next.”

Suna Bros. has been running its LaserStar for five years. They chose the unit based largely on Crafford’s reputation. “They’re very organized, customer-friendly, and service-oriented,” Suna says. “Anything you need in the way of parts, they’ll send overnight or a technician will get to you right away. And their follow-up is good.”

Suna says that the LaserStar helps his company maintain its very high standards—standards that extend to the back of a piece of jewelry. “It can get into small areas,” he says. “The look of the back is as important as the front on a Suna Bros. piece. Because we do things with a lot of components, we often assemble after stones are set.” Part of that assembly includes cleaning up the back. “It was difficult to do in a lot of cases,” he adds. The accuracy and specifically concentrated heat of the laser makes that job easier—as evidenced by the fact that he can’t keep his jewelers away from it.

Zahntech LWD4V
In the three years that he has owned his Zahntech LWD4V, Joseph Bruner of MAB Diamonds in Springfield, Pennsyl-vania, has had to contact the company only once for a replacement part. And that’s because the computer store next door was out of stock on the cooling fan he needed. Even at that, it wasn’t that the fan had quit. It was just “squeaking.”

It’s that sort of reliability that’s kept Bruner pleased with his LWD4V. Before buying he compared it, via a spreadsheet, with models from four other competitors. Looking at such elements as power, price, optics, features, warranty, and training, he felt that the Zahntech was the hands-down favorite. It had, at the time, a distinct power advantage over the others, offering 135 joules to the others’ 85 joules. “It’s nice to have the extra horsepower when you need it,” Bruner says. He also liked that the LWD4V’s warranty was measured solely in calendar length—two years—as opposed to calendar length or the number of usage hours, whichever came first. Plus, the machine has no consumable components, which could save his company up to $400 each year. “Zahntech was so much better, it was a no-brainer,” he says.

As a working retail shop, MAB Diamonds uses its laser for a number of repairs and manufacturing processes every day. In fact, because the machine runs all day, the LWD4V’s cooling system, which is a distilled-water-cooled sealed chamber surrounded by polished ceramic, also became a major factor. Unlike some other chambers, says Bruner, it will not degrade over time. And because space is limited, Bruner likes that the LWD4V has a relatively small footprint and is readily portable. The machine is kept out in a hallway. If, for example, a piece of furniture needs to come down that same hall, the LWD4V is unplugged, wheeled out of the way, then plugged right back in so that work resumes, virtually uninterrupted.

Bruner can vouch for only part of Zahntech’s tech support. While they’ve always been a quick call away for him if he had a technical question—about power settings for certain metals, for example—he’s never had to ask for help with the mechanical aspects of the machine. Work hour after work hour, his LWD4V keeps going strong.