Big scary laser

on 2018-01-05 4 Comments

Or not. I have been begging Santa for fiber laser for years and this year seems like I behaved myself good enough to deserve it. Crate weight was more than 60kg, pulled my back while carrying it but I don’t complain.

Marking

It’s quite opposite to 3D printers where material is being deposited. Laser energy evaporates material thus revealing structure below surface.

I will not get into details much but it is not easy to setup correctly for specific application. Don’t get me wrong it works out of the box with minor adjustments, but with too much power while marking power map pattern I cut my kid’s Lego power brick all the way damaging battery itself.

To be short it’s much more complicated than might seem at the first glance. Everything matters, material, material additives or pigment, laser peak power, pulse rate, marking speed, pulse duration, focus point… And to complicate even more there are few kinds of absorption results can be observed in material:

Ablation – some surface material is vaporized (similar to etching)
Annealing – this process heats up steel thus changing it’s color. Very useful, because does not damage material integrity
Color changing – some materials (mostly plastics) after receiving right amount of laser radiation changes color. Actually it’s a pigment who change color, but results are high contrast and like annealing surface is not compromised
Engraving – like ablation removes material. Usually deeper
Foaming – some materials (again mostly plastics) boil and foam after absorbing enough of laser radiation, thus forming embossed pattern

Some results

Aluminium

I ordered this tool mostly for marking my products. Many of these are made of anodized aluminium and laser engraving leaves outstanding impression.

Stainless steel

Could not resist to try stainless steel annealing – results are spectacular. Color laser engraving without a pigment or die.

Click on animated GIF for real-time speed video on youtube.

Marking steel tools with tiny codes. 2x2mm QR-code, reading is a bit complicated though.

Tungsten carbide

Reduced 3mm tungsten carbide diameter with a rotary fixture. Etching and and new surface had only experimental polishing though.

Comments ( 4 )

2018-01-05Val
Hey Saulius, Congratulations on the awesome laser! Which model is it, and where is it purchased, if you don'd mind asking ;) Cheers, Val
- 2018-01-05saulius
  Hi Val, actually there are plenty of manufacturers and product looks similar. It fits under generic name "20W fiber laser marking machine" (there is selection in a range of 20-60W). Depending on price you can get Max or Raycus laser source, litlaser controller (usually knockoff), less known galvo-scanner and aluminium enclosure. I don't don't dare to recommend particular seller because they are not produce components by themselves just put everything together so quality and result varies. But one option is to take a risk and order blindfolded or pay 5x the price.
2022-07-13nader
Can you please put the link where you buyed? Thanks
- 2022-07-13saulius
  Hi Nader, just search for a 20/30/50W fiber laser machine. I bought it a long time ago, you will not find the same model, and there are much more manufacturers now.