(Newswire.net — September 23, 2020) — Lasers are the tools of the future.
Think of any futuristic sci-fi movie you’ve watched—laser guns, laser medical procedures, and laser technology everywhere, right?
Well, when it comes to metal engraving, the future is already here. If you want to get the ultimate laser precision for a beautiful art piece or an important code, the best tool for the job is, well, a laser.
We’ll walk you through everything you need to know, just keep reading.
1. Traditional vs. Laser Precision
If you’re new to the concept of engraving metal, you may be wondering whether laser engraving is your only option out there.
We’d say it’s not the only option, but it’ll likely be the one you need.
The Right Technique
In general, traditional metal engraving isn’t as precise as laser engraving. This is because laser engraving works on a digital system, which can make exact designs based on how it’s programmed. If you’re looking to engrave lettering, a laser engraving method will create the font exactly as it looks on the screen.
You can think of the difference between traditional and laser engraving as the difference between drawing something and printing it.
When you draw freehand, your results will depend on your technique. If you’re an excellent artist, you might be able to match the precision of a printer, and you might feel that this is more meaningful. For most people, though, printing will yield better results.
How Hard Can It Be?
When traditional engraving is used, it’s mostly for softer metals. Increasing the hardness of the metal you’re engraving means you’ll have to choose an even harder engraving tool. For example, if you want to engrave a hard material like tungsten, you might need a diamond-tipped tool to do the job.
Depending on what you need the engraving for, you might want to go with a harder material to make the engraving last as long as possible. In these cases, laser engraving is the way to go.
2. Laser Marking
If you need to keep a number or phrase on a piece of metal but don’t need the engraved ‘look,’ you might get the best results with something called annealing laser marking.
This is a process where a low-powered laser beam hits specific points on the surface of the metal without cutting into it. These areas then oxidize in the air and turn black, creating a dark print on the lighter-colored metal. Laser marking is a high-resolution process, meaning you can fit more information into a smaller space.
People often use this technique for marking tiny surfaces, like tweezers or other specialized equipment.
For these items, the laser process will tend toward practicality rather than aesthetics. You might not want tiny crevices in these instruments, and what’s important here is to leave identifying information, like serial numbers and codes.
Although laser marking may give you better results than laser engraving for small jobs, the precision of this technique will depend on the quality of the tool you’re using. Make sure the machine doing the process is specially equipped for laser marking functions.
3. Laser Etching
You can think of etching as a less intense version of regular engraving. It does change the level of the surface, but only barely, and in the opposite direction.
Etching, like marking, uses a lower-powered laser beam to hit specific points on the metal’s surface. When the beam touches an area, it distorts the surface layer. Rather than creating an indent, this process allows the surface to expand.
In the end, you’ll create a design that is raised from the surface of the rest of the metal. The elevation is on the micro-scale, though, so you’ll experience the “raised surface” more like a texture. You likely won’t be able to tell whether the surface is raised or indented, just that it’s a different texture.
A laser etching process usually takes much less time than an engraving process. And if you’re hiring a company to do this for you, it’ll probably be cheaper than engraving as well. This is because you don’t need as much power to engrave as you do to etch.
If you want to get precision on complex designs, you might want to consider a combination of etching and engraving. This can give you three levels of color contrast: the original material, the new texture created by etching, and the look of an engraved surface.
4. How to Prepare
In order to understand the preliminary stages of laser precision, let’s return to the printing vs. drawing metaphor.
Sure, printing might have the potential to be more precise than drawing. But this all depends on the file you’re printing. What’s the resolution on that file, and how does it look before you send it to the printer?
In the same way, an important step in creating a precise laser engraving is to make sure you’re feeding the machine an excellent image.
The image you use can be one of the usual image file formats, like JPG, PNG, or PDF, or it can come straight from an art application designed for mark-making. Take a look at the size and resolution of the image to make sure it will look okay. If you’re trying to engrave, mark, or etch a small image onto a large surface, the resolution will suffer.
As long as your image looks good on the screen and you’re using a high-quality machine, you can be fairly certain you’ll get a great laser engraving.
See You Laser!
Once you learn how to get laser precision for your engraving needs, it’s time to test it out for yourself. If you have the equipment available, you can start trying on scrap materials before moving on to tools and even jewelry. And if you’re hiring a company, they can help you decide the type of laser engraving you need.
Check back here for more useful tips and the latest news you need to know.