Laser Engraving: Reaching new heights

In manufacturing one of the most important uses of laser is that of laser engraving, it is basically that technique in which lasers are used to mark or engrave into any object like metal parts, girders, and even specially designed alloys like polymers and some new metal alloys which have been developed so that they can be easily engraved upon.

The main advantage of this is that there is no actual physical contact between the engraving bit and the surface that the engraving is being done upon, this helps us avoid any dangers of the bits or the surface corroding off, also this process helps engrave the surface in an undisturbed way that is the engraving hardly shows over the surface which is not so in case of using metal bits to engrave.

A good question is the cost trying to introduce such technology , the cost work out way lower in the longer run as they needn’t be replaced in a regular fashion as in case of metal bits and if the scale of production is considerable then this can prove to be a big cost centre.

The best part about this technology is that it can made to be highly precise while the engraving process is being carried out, in fact there is a particular laser table which is used for such kind of precise and intricate work. A very sophisticated setup it includes a laser being stationed fixed at one end of the table and then it emitting it’s beam towards a pair of mirrors which deflect it in such a way that every bit of the tables actual surface can be covered, then a specially designed lens is used to focus the beams which helps to make the overall engraving very intricate.

The kinds of surface that can be engraved are:

1. Any kind of natural materials: Like wood, leathers etc. in this type of engraving very low intensity lasers are used as a high power laser engraving can spoil the material, one needs to know the maximum limit for such kind of engraving is usually 10 watts.

2. Plastic surfaces are also some of the substances that can be engraved, since usage of plastics is very widespread thus we can use it extensively to do markings for batch numbers etc for the objects.

Metal parts are the basic material for which the whole engraving process was started; in this the laser systems used are usually of very short wave lengths.