Needle vs Kamino vs Jango vs Dagger: Which Netalux Laser Fits Your Work?
Updated: 3 days ago
Netalux builds four laser cleaning families, and they aren't four sizes of the same machine. Needle, Kamino, Jango and Dagger each put energy onto a surface in a different way, so the right one depends less on the wattage and more on what you're removing, what has to survive underneath, and where the work happens.
Here's how we help customers sort that out.
Start with the part, not the brochure
Before we talk about machines, we ask three questions. What has to come off? What has to stay? And how will you know the job is done?
Light oxide on a stainless weld, an old epoxy system on structural steel and baked-on release agent in a mould can look similar in a photo. Under a laser they behave very differently. A weld going to dye-penetrant inspection has a different finish line than steel being prepped for a new coating. If the substrate is thin, polished, heat-treated or otherwise sensitive, that changes the answer too.
Once we know the job, the machine choice usually narrows quickly.
Needle: precision you can carry
The Needle is the precision tool in the lineup. Its Gaussian beam concentrates energy toward the centre of the spot, which gives the operator tight control over exactly where the laser works. That's what you want on welds, small parts, edges, tooling and anything with detail.
There are two pairs:
Needle 100 and 150: up to 1 mJ per pulse, about 20 kg, 4.5 m fibre
Needle 200 and 300: up to 2 mJ per pulse, about 40 kg, 7.5 m fibre
Both run on single-phase power, are air-cooled and fit in a service van.
The Needle's best work is on stainless steel. After welding, it clears heat tint, discolouration and embedded surface contamination right down to clean metal, with no pickling paste, acids or rinse water. That leaves a clean surface where the chromium-oxide layer can re-form and restore the steel's corrosion resistance. For food, pharmaceutical, architectural and process-piping fabricators, that means passivation-ready welds straight off the bench, without a chemical line to manage or acid waste to dispose of.
It's also our first choice for weld prep before and after welding, NDT cleaning and selective coating removal. Anywhere the job calls for a clean, precise result exactly where you aim, the Needle delivers.
Kamino: the versatile middle
The Kamino 300 shares a wattage with the Needle 300 and very little else. It delivers 10 mJ per pulse, five times a Needle 300, and its beam sits between the Needle's focused Gaussian spot and the Jango's flat top-hat. You get the control of the first with much more of the coverage of the second.
It's still portable. The base is air-cooled, it runs on single-phase power, and one person can move it. That makes it a strong fit for shops whose work swings between detail and coverage, such as paint removal on complex parts, recurring coating work on machinery, or cleaning that has to reach into features and then clear the open faces around them.
Kamino also integrates with robots, cobots and crawlers, so it works for automated cells as well as handheld jobs.
Jango: built for big surfaces
Jango is the heavy industrial cleaner. Its top-hat beam spreads up to 100 mJ evenly across each pulse, which gives a wide, uniform cleaning track on tanks, structural steel, turbine components, large fabrications and thick coatings.
It comes in 500 W, 1000 W and 2000 W versions. All are water-cooled, run on three-phase 380–440 V power, and weigh roughly 800 kg on wheels with forklift points. A process fibre of up to 50 m lets the cart stay in a safe, accessible spot while the operator works at the surface. Jango is also available as a stationary unit for production lines.
That size is the trade-off. Plan the power, the lifting, the compressed air for the handset, and the route into the building before the machine arrives.
Dagger: strip the coating and leave a profile
Dagger is a different kind of machine. The other three are nanosecond-pulsed lasers. Dagger is a 4000 W continuous-wave laser with two beams in one: a 1000 W Gaussian core and a 3000 W top-hat ring around it. The operator can fire the core, the ring, or both at once.
That control is the point. One part of the beam can do the heavy coating removal while the other conditions the bare steel. The result is coating removal and a measurable anchor profile in one process, where most jobs would otherwise need a second blasting step before repainting.
Dagger is a large, water-cooled, three-phase system, similar in footprint to a Jango, and it can be automated. Because it's continuous-wave, it puts more heat into the work than a pulsed laser at the same setting. That's useful when you want to change the surface on purpose, and it's something to test carefully on thin or heat-sensitive parts.
Which Netalux model?
If your main job is… | Start with | Why | Watch for |
Welds, small parts, detailed geometry | Needle 100–300 | Gaussian precision, light and portable | Slow on large, heavily coated areas |
A mix of detail and coverage | Kamino 300 | 10 mJ pulses with a beam between Gaussian and top-hat | Prove the finish and throughput on your parts |
Large surfaces and heavy coatings | Jango 500–2000 | Top-hat coverage, long fibre, continuous duty | Three-phase power, lifting, site access |
Coating removal plus an anchor profile | Dagger 4000 | Independent core and ring, CW power | Heat input on thin or sensitive parts |
Treat this as a shortlist, not a verdict. Two customers with the same coating thickness can still end up on different machines because of geometry, chemistry or the finish they need.
What a good demo should prove
Bring a real part, not the easiest one. Bring the actual coating stack and substrate. Tell us what happens after cleaning: inspection, welding, bonding or repainting. If the work is inside a tank or on a structure, tell us about access.
We'll also talk about what comes off the surface. Removing a hazardous coating doesn't make the dust harmless. Extraction, filtration and respiratory protection are part of the process from day one.
Limits
More power isn't always better. High energy can mark a thin or sensitive part. A small, precise machine can be too slow for broad coating removal. A continuous-wave system may be the wrong tool where the metal can't take any heat. Plating, composites and plastics need testing first. Wood can respond very well, especially to Kamino and Jango, but it burns, so the settings have to be right for your material.
And a clean patch on a flat coupon isn't a production rate. Compare finished parts per shift, including repositioning and inspection, not square metres per hour on an ideal surface.
Safety
Every machine here is a Class 4 laser. You need a documented hazard assessment, control of direct and reflected beams, eyewear rated for 1064 nm, a controlled work area, trained operators and good fume extraction. The right eyewear and barriers come out of that assessment for your site.
We supply laser safety equipment and run Laserversity operator and safety training. CCOHS's laser safety guidance is a good general reference.
Frequently asked questions
Is a 300 W Kamino better than a 300 W Needle?
It's different. Kamino puts five times more energy into each pulse and spreads it more evenly, so it clears more coating per pass. The Needle is more precise on fine detail. The right choice depends on the part.
Can a Jango do everything a Needle does?
Not well. Jango is built for coverage. Its size and beam make it awkward on tight, detailed work where a Needle shines.
Is Dagger pulsed?
No. Dagger is continuous-wave, with a 1000 W Gaussian core and a 3000 W top-hat ring you can run separately or together.
Can one machine cover all our work?
Sometimes. Test your three most common jobs before deciding.
Where do we start?
With a sample and your acceptance criteria. Book a demo, send us a part, or call +1 (705) 805-2737.
