I did over a 120 thousand restorations last year, and the Primotec handled our production very nicely. And as I compare these two technologies in real life, in the trenches, in production......the Primotec blows away the LaserStar in price, quality, and service
That's just my humble opinion Doc Roberts
Gotta agree with you, Shaun. In 12 years of teaching laser welding at BTI, I've trained dozens of Laserstar users that claimed that CPP didn't teach them anything about applications. It's not a bad laser, but it's a jewelry laser, meant for welding precious metals, that has been adapted for our industry. I've worked with a number of Laserstar units and, ON EVERY ONE OF THEM, the argon tube was too short. You don't need a lot of argon to weld gold, but with NP, CrCo and titanium, argon coverage is crucial for a strong weld. Did they tell you this, Shaun? All they had to do was lengthen the argon tube and the welds would be fine, but they didn't and, to my knowledge, they still don't provide an adequate argon tube. For years, their website showed examples of partial denture welding that was awful. Brown,dull and crinkly looking. Anything but shiny is bad. Probably why your results were only 'ok'.
The fact that you mentioned that the LaserStar has 50 joules means that they are still "teaching" a lot of penetration welding. In our industry, a laser's "power" doesn't mean much, unless you want to blow holes through stuff. The most I ever use is about 60% of my laser's available power.
Shaun, did they teach you how to do margins, holes, contacts, bridge connections, add metal occlusals, redirect pontics, major connectors, minor connectors, clasps, occlusals rests, partial retention, finish lines? How about implant bars and hybrid frames, custom abutments for implant crowns, custom locator abutments,or implant bar reconstructions. Maybe fix or add retention, or an attachment to a CAD/CAM bar?......no?
I'm glad you've got all your bases covered, man, but I think you've spent $10,000 too much.
These bozos are why labs are replacing their laser welders with glorified soldering machines.