What is the payback period of a laser welding machine?

What is the payback period of a laser welding machine?

Anyone who thinks about buying a laser welder like the Weldr rightly asks the question: how quickly do you earn back that investment? With a price of around €10,000, it seems like a hefty expense at first glance, but in practice the payback period often turns out to be surprisingly short.

This is because the benefits of laser welding are not at one point, but are spread over the entire process. You not only save time during the welding itself, but also afterwards. Especially the limited post-processing and fewer corrections ensure that the total processing time per piece decreases noticeably. This time saving may sound abstract, but in reality it is very concrete. In practice, you see that it comes from several small optimizations that together make a big difference. Think of faster welding than traditional techniques, less or no grinding afterwards, less rework and a smoother workflow without interruptions.

If you make that concrete, you quickly arrive at realistic figures. Suppose you weld 15 to 20 pieces daily and you save an average of 3 to 5 minutes each. Then you quickly save 60 to 90 minutes of time per day. The often used estimate of 1 hour of savings per day is therefore certainly not exaggerated, in many cases even rather conservative.

To convert that time saving into a financial impact, you have to look at the actual cost of an operator. This is higher than just the hourly wage, because social security contributions, workshop costs and indirect costs also play a role. In practice, you end up with an average of about €50 per hour. If you combine the two, you immediately get a clear picture.

Payback period of the Weldr in practice:

 Even in a cautious scenario, you see that the investment pays for itself within a year. With daily use, the payback period is often between 6 and 12 months, depending on the type of work and the intensity. In addition, there is an additional factor that is often underestimated: energy consumption. Laser welding works considerably more efficiently because the energy is used in a very targeted way. Instead of heating up a wide zone, as in classic processes, only the necessary point is heated. This results in lower energy consumption per weld, which results in additional savings on an annual basis.