On March 29th, the long-awaited 2016 Shenzhen International Machinery Manufacturing Industry Exhibition (SIMM) was held at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center in the sheet metal processing and machine tool industries. As the first international professional exhibition recognized and recommended by the International Exhibition Industry Association (UFI) in southern China, and also one of the brand exhibitions in Shenzhen, the "Shenzhen Machinery Exhibition" has been successfully held for 16 times so far. With the gathering of world-class brand manufacturers, SIMM has transformed from a traditional exhibition model of display, trading, and procurement to a large-scale international exchange platform representing modern manufacturing technology, such as intelligent manufacturing systems, advanced process technology, personalized processing solutions, and themed forums with industry characteristics. It is one of the heavyweight exhibitions with many shining highlights in the first half of the year. In recent years, with the decrease in procurement costs of laser equipment and the promotion of processing technology, laser cutting has gradually become popular in the field of sheet metal processing. After years of development, the domestic laser cutting market has gradually matured, and more and more laser cutting machine manufacturers are launching various types of laser cutting equipment. It is not difficult to see that fiber laser cutting machines have recently become the core product promoted by many laser cutting machine manufacturers. Under such market trends, fiber laser cutting machines have become a new favorite in the laser cutting industry, and this is indeed the case. This year, laser cutting machine manufacturers such as Dazhong Laser, Dineng Laser, Hongshan Laser, and Yawei Laser participating in the SIMM Shenzhen Machinery Exhibition mainly showcase fiber laser cutting machines. Rudi Laser will bring open type fiber laser cutting machines, enclosed belt automatic exchange fiber laser cutting machines, HLF-2040 fiber laser cutting machines from Yawei Laser, and CYFP-1450 3D laser cutting machines that integrate industrial robots and fiber lasers, among others.

However, after visiting laser companies one by one at SIMM Machinery Exhibition, the author found that fiber laser cutting machines played a leading role, and disc laser cutting machines became more common, including the 6000W disc laser used by Farley Laser and the 4000W disc laser used by the Bolt series cutting machines of Pentium Chutian. On site, it was observed that the fiber laser cutting machine was equipped with lasers from fiber laser suppliers such as IPG, Chuangxin, Ruike, and Luofen. Due to the excellent beam performance and cutting advantages of disc lasers, they have also been adopted by some equipment integrators. Currently, there is only one supplier globally that can provide mature disc lasers, Germany's Tongkuai Group. It can be foreseen that in the future, fiber laser cutting and disc laser cutting will compete together in the market of laser cutting.