Beams of Might

A company can typically swing an investment in the 6200 if it is cutting/ruling more than 10 boards a day, advises Christopherson, while the most common candidates for buying bigger models already own smaller laser systems.

For die shops still doing the math on a laser purchase, the numbers haven't changed much. "Prices have remained fairly stable over the past few years, and when you take inflation into account, the price of systems has effectively dropped," says Dave Forstrom, V.P. of operations at Lasercut.