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Laser Engraving machine recommendations

yoke

Hot Rolled
Joined
Sep 26, 2013
Location
PA
I have been seeing an increase in the need to engrave or mark our parts. Machine engraving is taking too long so I want to get a laser engraver.

Most of the parts are relatively small, under 12x12 inch. Speed is certainly a concern but as long as I can do it faster then the current engraving it'll be a win.

What brand and options should I look for?
 
We have an older Gravograph LS900 machine with an 80w co2 laser. Unfortunately, it will not do anything to metal on its own, but will react with a spray (Ceramark) on the metal to chemically etch it. The spray washes off after with water.

A quick look at their website shows many newer options.

Gravograph: manufacturer of industrial laser engraving machine | Gravograph

A rotary engraving machine set to drag a diamond stylus across the surface in the shapes required also works well, but the height has to be reset for each different piece and it's not forgiving for (lack of flatness) flatness.

We also have a dot peening machine for simpler markings. Not pretty but very simple.
 
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The frequency of the laser determines the material it can mark. Fixturing can help get a good burn on difficult materials. I would start by listing your needs (material type and surface finish) to mark and try for a laser that will do most of them...
 
If you want a very capable, but inexpensive fiber laser:
litlaser.com

I have a few year old 20w and it works great. No enclosure, so you’ll need to be ok with that... made in China, but supported by US distributor in CA.
 
Mostly needed on raw AL or anodized AL. Occasional Stainless components.

I had in mind some kind of table top models.
 
I can only comment on Vyteks. That's all we have ever owned. Only ever owed CO2 type gantry lasers. We tried the parts marking market, and it just wasn't as fast as one would have hoped. Now I am only throwing CO2 lasers under the bus here. Stay away from that type for your need. I think Yag or Galvo types are what you want for the small area you wish to be engraved or marked.

Any raw aluminum part you want to be permanently marked, first, needs to be coated with a special marking spray, and then laser marked. If its already got an anodized coating on it, then it's a one step process instead of two.

Lastly, setup time on a gantry type CO2 Laser machine is quite tedious and cumbersome. FYI.

Good luck.
 
I wanted to make a correction to the above recommendations for Laser Marking type machines.

FIBER Laser machines is what you would want. They are super fast, but have a small window of etching. Great for logos and serial numbers on parts, but no good for large area markings.

Also, some Chinese Fiber lasers are pretty darn good. And priced way better than American Fibers, but you will need to do some serious shopping around Alibaba for a reputable manufacturer. The deal with Chinese lasers is that there are only a couple big manufacturers, but hundreds of distributors that slap a different color of paint on the outer shell with their logo, then promote it as their own product.

Typically, the internal guts are good quality, except laser tube.

SO, ask that particular vender if they would be willing to upgrade the glass laser tube with an American brand RF type of Laser such as a Firestar RF Laser by Synrad or something else that's comparable.
I even saw this one Chinese company that serviced and refurbished American name brand lasers, and ship them back to the U.S. Also sold them too. Crazy.

Anyway, best of luck.
 
We bought the 50 watt fiber from Amazon about 6 k works good get the 300 mm lens I think it has a 5 year warranty
Don


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I use CO2 with Ceramark. Bought a cheap chinese 100 watt unit and upgraded the control and software. Next I will step up to fiber when demand justifies it.
 
Topping an Old Thread

I am in need to place a value on etching prox 40 charactors on a steel part with nickel plating at a qty of 200K/yr.

At that volume, I'm guessing that we would likely want to buy a unit and run that part in-house.

Since I am just at the quoting stage, could someone give me a ballpark idea of the cost for a unit and how much perishable costs (any?) and time that it would take to cycle something like that?

Just enough so that I can put some sort of ballpark value on that opp?


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
I am in need to place a value on etching prox 40 charactors on a steel part with nickel plating at a qty of 200K/yr.

At that volume, I'm guessing that we would likely want to buy a unit and run that part in-house.

Since I am just at the quoting stage, could someone give me a ballpark idea of the cost for a unit and how much perishable costs (any?) and time that it would take to cycle something like that?

Just enough so that I can put some sort of ballpark value on that opp?


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

We’ve got an Epilog FiberMark. Its either 20W or 30W but it zaps like an old dot matrix printer...the “printer” head goes left and right moving down a bit after each line. The advantage to this is you can mark large surfaces (24” x 12” or so) BUT it is slow compared to the type that use a small mirror that pivots around to locate the focal point. Those types are fast but do not have large marking areas. I think ours was $20-$30k but there are lots of the type with the pivoting mirror / smaller marking area type for about $10k.

I bet to zap a business cards worth of size 12 font might take 30 seconds on mine but maybe 5-10 seconds on the pivoting mirror type. Loading and unloading takes time and some are open enclosures and some have a door with an interlock so it’s up to you how safe you wanna be.

We haven’t experienced any “consumables” so that cost might be zero?

Now that I’m thinking about it, the type that I have might be beneficial bc you could make a fixture plate to hold a bunch of parts and zap them all at once but that would only make sense if your parts are small.

Good luck!
 
Cylindrical surface.

I'm sure that makes a difference. :o


Old skewl - we used to used a roll stamp to put mfgr names, or part numbers, or ??? on round parts, but this customer is asking for a little fancier method.



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That likely requires the "Done with Mirrors" like you mentioned?
Ox
 
I've worked two places with desktop sized laser etchers, and both were by Epilog. I would highly recommend them. Currently we have two of these FiberMark S2 laser for metal marking and part identification from Epilog Laser I believe.

When we're working at capacity, We etch probably hundreds of tooling ID tags a week, pneumatic/electric line labels, machine labels. We cut cardboard, leather, vinyl, and probably more, with it. They work pretty great, I think. Reliable. Most of the guys use Excel templates we set up for known-size objects like tags and labels. I've used Autocad to take a DXF/DWG of the part, put my text and whatever on it, and then "print" from that. At my last job I did Boeing drill jigs with bushing code sizes, markings, and part numbers etched onto parts. It can be quite accurate and easy to use, I find. I used it for serializing hundreds of heat exchanger parts, too.

Their work tables are 12x24 so it'd suit you well, I'd think.

I don't know what other bells and whistles I'd care to have, that it might lack. I've only used the Epilog machines, really.


Edit to add: **They make rotaries for truly engraving cylindrical surfaces. Otherwise you can adjust your focus depth, and print as if it were flat. Depending on how broad the radius is, it may work. The laser has focus for a somewhat-forgiving variation in thickness. You can etch it once, lower your Z-height, etch it again, repeat until it works its way down the curve.
 
So, ultimately it just boils down to cost of unit and then time to load and unload plus a few seconds eh?



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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
So, ultimately it just boils down to cost of unit and then time to load and unload plus a few seconds eh?

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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Yuh huh! The epilog we have has an extra rotary just like a 4th axis on a mill we use for marking cylindrical parts 1.125” OD. However, there ARE some types of lasers that will mark around the OD of a part without rotating the part....the laser zips around somehow and I think they can get pretty close to 180 degrees of marking.
 
One line of marking on a round part does not need a rotary unless very small diameter. I advise against a rotary here,
Load/unload time is the labor cost. Can you put in one or five to ten at a time?
Consumables are electricity and these things do eat much at all.
Figure 20 to 40 large machine investment.
Bob
 








 
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