Thunder Laser Standards and Quality Control

Thunder Laser China

Thunder Laser USA machines are designed and manufactured to our US specifications by Thunder Laser China from scratch and they build over 20 years of improvement, innovation, and experience into each machine. They have very tight QC and have the facilities to quantify these tolerances. Thunder Laser has a photonics lab where every tube is inspected, tested, and graded and much much more.

Standard QC Specifications

Thunder Laser USA

Some Of What Makes Thunder Laser Different

Many Chinese lasers do have electrical issues when used in the US unless they are upgraded, rebuilt, etc... But, here is a misconception that its just because the wire is cheap and the quality is poor. While this can be the case, the real 'rub' is that most of the world uses 220v AC power. The little wire that comes in most of Chinese lasers is fine for 220v usage because the machine will only pull half the current as it would if used in the US with 110v AC. So this is why you see everyone have wiring issues in that respect and why you see some companies tear apart brand new lasers to rebuild them to be good enough to sell.

Here is an example of some 'typical' generic Chinese laser wiring:

Thunder Laser USA and other North American Thunder Distributors get machines made specifically for the 110v AC 60Hz North American power. And its more than that. The AC power distribution splits and is filtered separately to isolate the laser power supply and chiller from the rest of the electronics via a 50A contactor. So a lot of engineering goes into each machine.

Here is an example of Thunder Laser USA wiring:

Dedicated Power Supplies

Thunder Nova series machines have a standard 24v DC power supply that runs most of the electronics and a separate 36v DC power supply just for the X, Y, Z, and A axes.

Closed-Loop 'Hybrid' Steppers

Additionally, the motors are closed-loop hybrid servos (i know, not 'true' servos... yeah true but this is a heavy industrial machine and 1000mm/sec is plenty fast. Nova machines will go 1200mm/sec if you dial them in. But we are conservative. We under-promise and over-deliver. Besides, speed is just a number, there is more to it than that.

TL Timer Board

f

Maintenance (Door Checking) Board

h

Tube & Power Supply Calibration

Another example of this is the pairing and calibration of the tubes and the laser power supplies. All Nova series machines will produce 10% over their published power without exceeding the max operating current of the tube. To make that happen in the Nova 35-80, for instance, requires a Reci W6 90 watt tube and a 100w laser power supply. The Nova 35-80 produces about 88.6w at the 3rd mirror.