TJS brought two Endeavor fiber laser configurations to Fabtech 2026, held October 21 through 23 at the Las Vegas Convention Center: the Endeavor RETRO, a drop-in replacement laser for an existing workstation, and the Endeavor J-Series, the complete Class 1 turnkey workstation. Both ran live demos for three days. Both are air-cooled MOPA fiber lasers that plug into a standard 120VAC outlet, and both are designed, built, and supported in the United States.
That is the short version. The longer version is what people said when they stopped at the booth, because that is where the useful information was.
TJS demonstrated the Endeavor RETRO replacement fiber laser and Endeavor J-Series turnkey workstation, with live marking demonstrations and discussions about upgrades, support, and industrial marking applications.
Because a lot of fabricators are running a perfectly good workstation around a laser that is at the end of its life. The RETRO exists for that situation. It replaces the laser and the controls and leaves the enclosure, the fixturing, the conveyor, and most of the automation in place.
The conversations at the booth followed a pattern we have seen for years. Someone walks up and describes a flash lamp Nd:YAG or an older CO2 system that still marks parts but takes more coaxing every month. The flashlamps are getting harder to source. The power supply has been repaired twice. The chiller is on borrowed time. They do not want to throw out a workstation that was engineered for their parts, and they do not want to re-fixture a line that already runs.
A RETRO swap addresses the laser without touching the rest. The system is available in 20W, 30W, 50W, 70W, 100W, and 200W versions, all air-cooled, all running on 120VAC. That last part matters more than it sounds. Replacing a lamp-pumped laser that needed 230VAC three-phase power and a water chiller with a unit that runs on wall power removes an electrical contractor and a plumber from the project. For the fabrication shops we talked to, that was often the difference between a retrofit that gets approved this quarter and one that waits for next year's capital budget.
The small footprint also came up. Several attendees were integrators or automation builders rather than end users. For them the RETRO is an OEM laser: a module that mounts on a conveyor, inside a cell, or onto a product they are building for someone else. We designed it that way on purpose, drawing on more than three decades of repairing and retrofitting other people's laser systems.
The J-Series is the full workstation, and the demo was built to show the things that only make sense once you stand in front of one. The 36-inch by 24-inch work platform on a 0.375-inch aluminum plate holds a rotary indexer and still leaves room for fixtures. The 11-inch by 11-inch laser-safe viewing window lets an operator watch the mark without opening the door. The motorized JOG Z-axis moves in 0.0005-inch increments for focus, then runs at full speed when you hold the button, with 4-micron repeatability on a zero-backlash leadscrew.
Attendees noticed the small things first. The 110VAC outlet on the frame for a fume extractor, so there is no extension cord across the floor. Interior LED lighting at 2700 lumens. Locking, leveling casters so the whole station moves to where the work is. An adjustable monitor and keyboard mount. These are features most workstation builders sell as options. On the J-Series they are standard, because after forty years of servicing other people's lasers we know which options customers end up buying anyway.
The J-Series drew tool and die shops, machine shops, firearms manufacturers, and job shops that mark their own parts. Many had been sending parts out for marking or using a low-cost import laser that had already let them down once. What they wanted was a station they could trust to mark part numbers, 2D matrix codes, logos, and date codes every day, and to still be running in year three. The J-Series carries the same three-year warranty on the fiber laser as the RETRO, and it ships ready to plug into a 120VAC outlet.
This is the part worth reading if you are comparing systems right now. The feedback we heard in Las Vegas confirmed the reasons we built the Endeavor line the way we did.
The recurring complaint about other fiber lasers was not marking quality. Most fiber lasers mark well on day one. The complaint was what happens after. Support that routes through a reseller who did not build the machine. Replacement parts that ship from overseas on a lead time nobody can pin down. Software that locks the shop into one vendor's workflow. Warranties measured in months.
We designed the Endeavor line after more than forty years of servicing and repairing lasers from nearly every manufacturer in the business. We know where the failure points are because we have been the ones called in to fix them. The Endeavor products were built to eliminate those points, and TJS reports zero field failures across the Endeavor line since its introduction in 2014. That record is why we back the fiber laser with a three-year warranty.
The other thing attendees kept asking about was who they would talk to when something needed attention. The answer is the same engineers who designed and assembled the system, in Sanford, Florida. Nobody at the booth had to explain how to reach a support desk, because there is no desk between the customer and the people who built the laser.
Surface marking, annealing, etching, and deep engraving on metals, plus high-contrast marks on plastics, ceramics, and coated materials. At the booth we ran demos on anodized aluminum, stainless, tool steel, and cylindrical parts on a rotary fixture, because those are the jobs people brought samples of.
The power lineup covers the range. A 20W or 30W unit handles annealed logos and part numbers on medical, electronic, and promotional parts. The 50W and 70W units are the workhorses for general industrial marking and moderate engraving. The 100W and 200W units are for deep engraving on die molds, firearms, and hardened tooling, where TJS customers routinely cut marks deeper than 0.040 inch.
The time savings on deep work are where the business case gets easy. TJS tool and die customers have reported jobs that took more than three hours on an older lamp-pumped system finishing in under three minutes on an Endeavor fiber laser. That kind of cycle time change pays for the laser quickly, and it changes how a shop quotes engraving work.
Start with what you already have.
If you have a working workstation or an automated line with a tired laser inside it, the RETRO is the answer. You keep your enclosure, your fixtures, and your process, and you replace the one component that is failing. Integrators building a new cell or an OEM product land here too, because the RETRO mounts almost anywhere.
If you are adding marking capacity and do not have a workstation to put it in, the J-Series gives you the complete Class 1 station: enclosure, motorized Z-axis, work platform, lighting, computer, and software, ready to run. For high-volume lines, TJS builds custom J-Series workstations with conveyors, pick-and-place robots, vision systems, and 2D barcode verification.
Both share the same laser source, the same Prolase 10 software, the same 120VAC air-cooled platform, and the same warranty. The choice is about packaging, not performance.
Every Endeavor system is designed, manufactured, and assembled in the U.S.A. That line gets a nod at most trade shows. At Fabtech it got follow-up questions, because the people asking had lived through the alternative.
Domestic assembly means the engineering team can turn a custom field size or a special mounting configuration quickly. It means replacement parts ship from Florida, not from a container. And it means the people who build the laser are the people who answer the phone, which is the single thing attendees said they could not get from the systems they were replacing.
We thank everyone who stopped by the booth and brought parts for us to mark. If you were not in Las Vegas and want to see what the RETRO or the J-Series would do on your parts, send us a sample. We will mark it and send it back with the settings we used.
Request a quote or contact TJS to talk through your application.
TJS demonstrated the Endeavor RETRO, a drop-in replacement fiber laser for existing workstations and automation, and the Endeavor J-Series, a Class 1 turnkey fiber laser workstation. Both ran live marking demos on metal and anodized samples throughout the show at the Las Vegas Convention Center, October 21 through 23, 2026.
Yes. The RETRO is designed to replace flash lamp, diode-pumped, CO2, and other legacy laser systems while keeping the existing enclosure, fixturing, and most automation. TJS replaces the laser and controls. The RETRO is air-cooled and runs on 120VAC, so it removes the three-phase power and chiller that most lamp-pumped systems required.
The Endeavor RETRO and J-Series are available in 20W, 30W, 50W, 70W, 100W, and 200W air-cooled MOPA fiber laser versions. Infrared (1064 nm) and visible green (532 nm) sources are available depending on the material.
TJS provides a three-year warranty on the fiber laser in every Endeavor system. TJS reports zero field failures across the Endeavor line since its introduction in 2014, and the systems are designed, assembled, and supported in Sanford, Florida.