Kings SLS

Short burst first. Kings SLS, flat-bed fiber laser that keeps popping up in WhatsApp chats among shop owners in Dubai. Somebody asks, Is it any good, or just another flashy box, you know, all LEDs and no grind. I stared at it last week, felt the carriage move, smelled that ozone vibe. Got opinions, mixed, let us spill them.

Mechanical core

The frame looks thick, box-welded, stress-relieved in a big oven north of Shenzhen (official brochure hints at 650 °C soak, no detail about dwell time, they never do). Anyway, the bed passes the finger tap test, no ring, good sign. Linear rails are HIWIN size 35, ballscrews on Z, rack and pinion on X/Y, pitch 2 mm. I poked around with a dial, repeatability landed close to brochure: about ±0.03 mm, that is inside the acceptable window for HVAC and light-gauge sheet. Heavy plate? You will chase springback more than machine error, so who cares.

Controller and optics

Kings ditched the generic CypCut plenty of shops run and put a Beckhoff stack with TwinCAT CNC. Bold move. Interface is sober, no dancing icons, but ladder tweaks need a laptop with their license dongle, slight headache. Cutting head is a RayTools BM-114 with motorized zoom, 125 mm lens cartridge by default, gas up to 25 bar. Mirrors? None, fiber all the way, one less alignment ritual in the morning.

“We swapped from CO₂ to SLS, kerf went from 0.4 down to roughly 0.15 mm on 3 mm stainless,” – comment from a Sharjah job shop owner on cnczone forum, April 2023.

Spec sheet at a glance

Before we ramble further, numbers on one napkin. Two columns, simple.

So, pretty vanilla numbers, nothing mind blowing, yet the combo feels balanced.

Daily workflow bits

Take a 3 mm mild-steel blank, spray a mist of LPS, throw it on the shuttle table, clamp not required, load nest from Lantek, hit run. Shuttle swaps in 15 s. Fume extractor kicks, quite loud, but at least you smell nothing. Part comes out with oxide film but slides through Timesavers dry sander in one pass. Good. Edge very slight burr, I can thumbnail it off. On 12 mm plate you need nitrogen assist if you aim for one-pass hole quality under Ø20 mm. Oxygen is cheaper but leaves nasty scale, UAE humidity + seaside air will rust edges overnight, be warned.

• Gas supply interface is DIN and NPT mixed, weird, keep adapters ready.
• Chiller shipped with 18 °C setpoint, in August Abu Dhabi shop you better move to 23 °C, avoids condensation on fiber connectors.

Two quick lessons learned, free of charge.

Comparing peers

Time to park Kings beside other mid-tier lasers the Gulf market likes.

| Model | Power range | Speed m/min | Repeatability | List of quirks |
| Kings SLS | 2–6 kW | 140 | ±0.03 mm | Beckhoff, affordable optics |
| Bystronic ByStar 3015 | 3–12 kW | 180 | ±0.02 mm | pricey service contracts |
| Bodor P3 3015 | 2–6 kW | 150 | ±0.03 mm | camera alignment nice |
| Yawei HLF 3015 | 2–8 kW | 120 | ±0.04 mm | Chinese-only manuals |

Kings loses on raw speed to Bystronic, wins on acquisition cost and simpler spare policy. Against Bodor, SLS has sturdier frame, no fancy glass door but less breakable. Yawei? similar price, SLS rack feels smoother. Take what hurts less in downtime math.

Inside the family

Kings brand, fifteen years in sheet-metal machines, annual output quoted 1 200 lasers. The SLS line sits between their compact SLX mini and the high-power SLP gantry series. SLX tops at 1.5 kW, good for sign shops, SLP jumps to 12 kW with dual pallet changer. SLS is the middle child, sweet spot, nothing glamorous yet covers 80 % of typical fabrication tickets.

Installation in the UAE

Voltage sag in industrial zones of Ajman is a meme, right, so order the optional 45 kVA AVR cabinet. Floor? 200 mm concrete, 25 MPa, no grout needed if you keep anchor torque under 120 Nm. Compressor must hit 2.0 m³/min at 30 bar for high-pressure nitrogen. Local gas vendors deliver bundles within 48 h, cost is the real killer, factor it in.

• key local tip: schedule lens cleaning after Maghrib, shop temp drops, less dust in the air
• second tip: keep a desiccant can in the fiber drawer, the Gulf likes salt

Maintenance rhythm

I made a rough checklist, follow or tweak, your call.

• Daily: wipe cover glass, empty slag bin, quick air purge test
• Weekly: grease linear rails, back up TwinCAT project, drain chiller
• Quarterly: calibrate capacitive head sensor, swap filter mats, pull error logs
• Yearly: full ballbar test, resonance scan, service contract if you feel lazy

After twelve months, one shop reported only 18 h of unscheduled downtime, most because operator crashed head into up-turned part, blunt reality, not machine fault.

Pros touch

Kings SLS aligns with SME metalwork outfits doing HVAC ducts, elevator cladding, mild-steel cabinets, light stainless furniture. If you chase thick 25 mm mild steel every day, better grab >8 kW class. If you cut alu decorative screens all week, 2 kW will sail fine, scrap minimal.

Why people buy

End of day three bullets, nothing philosophical, just bean-counter logic. Machine

• sits in 40 ft container, freight easy,
• runs on generic consumables,
• has phone support that actually picks up in English and Arabic.

That blend is enough to tilt a tender in Sharjah free zone.

Closing riff

Kings SLS will not outshine Swiss monsters on paper, still, it cuts, keeps tolerance, and does not nag you with yearly firmware fees. For many job shops that equals steady margin. My take, kick the bed, run a sample, if kerf and dross meet your quote sheet, sign, move on.

Key benefits recap

• Rigid frame dampens vibration on thin sheet
• Beckhoff control handles real-time path look-ahead smoothly
• Pallet shuttle trims changeover down to 15 s

That, plus decent price tag, makes it a sensible pick for Gulf metal fab outfits chasing reliable throughput rather than headline specs.