special plastics for engraving have been developed for signage, faceplates, and other items.

standard cast and sheet acrylic plastic and other resins can be laser engraved

. commonly engraved awards use a cast acrylic shape lasered from the back. styrene, the plastic used to make compact disk cases, and many thermoform plastics, will soften around the edges of the engraving, resulting in low contrast. the surface may even ripple or become deformed. in some applications, such as date marking on plastic soda bottles, this is acceptable.

special plastics for engraving have been developed for signage, faceplates, and other items. these plastics incorporate silicate and other materials that conduct heat away from the material before it can become deformed. outer laminates easily vaporize to expose a different colored material underneath.

other plastics may be engraved, but experimentation should first be conducted on a sample piece. bakelite and some hard engineering plastics are said to do well. expanded plastics, foams, and vinyl s, however, should be cut with a router for the purpose. urethane and silicone plastics cannot be laser engraved unless they contain cellulose, stone, or some other nonconductive material.

engraving takes a piece of precious metal, stone, or wood and gives it a unique look while endowing it with a sense of permanence and ownership.

the engraving process etches designs, signs, or insignias into the surface of the material by removing a portion of it.

the four basic techniques that are available for todays engravers include hand engraving, pantograph, computer numeric controlled engraving, and laser engraving.

the most ancient, and expensive, method of engraving is hand engraving. using hammers of various weights, chisels, and other sharp tools with various profiles, designs are meticulously tapped into the surface of the material. accuracy and precision are required with each and every stroke in order to achieve the proper overall look to the design.

a magnifying glass, or other enlarging equipment, is often required for the hand engraver to fill in the minutest of the design details.

another manual engraving method is the pantograph or drag method. in this old method a device (the pantograph, otherwise known as the tracing machine) scrapes the surface of the material with a sharp stylus.

the pantograph is used to trace the designs or letters from the design drawing to the surface of the material. this method is often imprecise in creating the designs and letters, giving the final product an uneven look.

one benefit of this method is that it is faster than hand engraving. you are also unlikely to get mistakes resulting from shaky hands as the stylus operator controls the writing.

a computer controlled method of engraving that gives you a more precise outcome is computer numeric control cnc engraving. a graphic software package that is similar to cross stitching is used to give you letters and designs that are uniform in appearance.

the computer is able to take the images and translate them into numeric instructions for each movement of the machine. you can change to fonts, sizes, and designs that are created with just a few clicks of the computer mouse.

the last method we will discuss is laser engraving, which etches the design into the material with the use of a laser beam rather than a sharp tool or stylus. the design is translated into numeric instructions through the use of a computer program. some of the benefits of laser engraving are the quickness with which an image can be created and the precise clean lines this method achieves. some of the disadvantages include a restricted amount of materials that can be used and a high price tag.

an item is engraved once it has had grooves or lines cut, carved, or etched into its hard surface. wood, stone, and metal are all materials commonly used in the engraving process. engraving has both functional and decorative applications. some of the industries that commonly make use of the engraving process include printing, jewelry making, and manufacturing.
engraving in printing
the printing industry commonly uses engraving. custom ordered wedding invitations, business cards, birth announcements, and personal stationary are commonly created using the engraving process. in fact, most of the paper money that is created these days uses the engraving process as well. the custom design and lettering for these items are engraved onto a metal die. during the printing process this engraved grooves of this die are filled with ink that is then pressed into the paper. this process gives you a very elegant raised lettering that can be felt by running your fingers over the paper.

laser engraving
one of the most popular forms of engraving these days is laser engraving. the designs and letters are cut into the surface of the material using a laser beam. one advantage of lasers is that they can easily reach into spots that would be difficult to reach with a hand tool. a computer program is often used to control the movements of the laser. some common uses for laser printing including etching a corporate logo and contact information onto marketing give away such as paperweights, key chains, and pens. one advantage of using engraving is that the image will not rub off over time. laser engraving also has a variety of industrial applications. good materials to use with laser
engraving include glass, leather, and plastic.

engraving in art
prior to the invention of photography engraving was a common way to illustrate newspapers and books. most of the pictures that can be seen in printed materials that were produced prior to the late 19th century were created using wood engraving. an engraver would remove the material from the block of wood following an image that had been drawn on the wood by an artist. another popular use for engraving in the art world was to reproduce paintings.

engraving jewelry
we can see examples of engraved jewelry on artifacts that are thousands of years old. jewelry that is given as a gift often includes an engraved message. special inscriptions or the name or initials of the jewelry owner are often put onto gold or silver pieces. often the grooves created by the engraving process are filled with enamel. you will also find beautiful images engraved onto a variety of gemstones, especially jade and ivory.

engraving gifts
there are a number of shops that specialize in creating unique gift items that are engraved. short messages or initials are commonly engraved onto rings, bracelets, and other jewelry that is given as a gift. dedications are often engraved onto the backs of pendants and lockets. cuff links, flasks, money clips, and pocket watches are all gifts for men that are commonly engraved. other popular engraved gifts for women include key chains and trinket boxes. banks make a great engraved gift for children, and people of all ages and genders will appreciate a custom engraved photo frame.

engraving that uses acid on a metal surface is known as etching.
etching is also used in the printmaking industry to carve an image into a metal plate with acid. once the acid is applied to the metal it bores into the surface, leaving behind lines and rough areas.

the process of etching is believed to have begun with daniel hopfer of augsburg, germany in his profession as an armor maker. it took a while for the process to be applied to print making.

both copper and zinc have a thin coating resin layer that is resistant to acid, which makes them ideal metals to use for etching. a coating can be made of a waxy material for use with metals that do not naturally have a coating. to make the engravings and lines clearly visible through the resin the metal plates are usually smoked. the metal is then scratched with a sharp tool which exposes the metal surface without penetrating it.

after the design has been etched onto the metal plate it is placed into an acidic solution which will only attack those parts of the plate which are exposed. the process of immersing the plate into the acid is called a bath. the plate is taken out of the bath several times, and then place back in until it has been etched to the desire depth.

to prevent the acid from penetrating the metal any further a coating of varnish is applied to the metal. you will get darker prints from the lines that are exposed to the acid the longest. there are some etchers who manually apply the acid to the plates surface rather than using a bath.

when making a print the varnish is removed and then ink is heated and placed onto the plate. after the ink is applied the excess is removed so that ink only remains in the depressions created by the etching process. the plate will then be covered with a soft, moist paper and placed in the etching press.

etchers will sometimes need to use modifying techniques in order to get the right image. removing any unwanted lines is one way that etchers will modify their products. they first make a trail print, and then burnish or modify the plate to correct it.

each plate can only make a few prints, as prints will look different in various stages of the printing process. after the desired number of prints are created the plates are usually destroyed by the etcher.

different methods of etching will produce different effects. items tend to have the look of a pencil drawing when they are created using soft-ground etching, while items created using aquatint with look more like a wash drawing. hard-ground etching is usually used in combination with aquatint.

the delicate art of pictorial etching is said to have evolved in germany as well. this method has its origins in burin engraving, where artists would etch on iron and gives us the earliest evidence of artistic etching.

wet and dry etchings are the most popular methods of etching these days. a container or bin filled with a solution that dissolves the metal is used for the easy process of wet etching. a mask is required so that the solution will only etch the desired parts of the metal plate. this means you will need to find a masking material that will not be destroyed by the etching solution. this method works great for etching thin films.

there are three main categories of dry etching: reactive ion etching (rie), sputter etching, and vapor phase etching. in rie gases are mixed with plasma in order to break gas molecules into ions. these ions will then react to the metal surface as the ions are accelerated.

gases are also used with sputter etching, but the ions are not. the simplest dry etching technique is vapor phase etching. in this technique the metal plate is placed into a chamber where gases are then introduced. a chemical reaction occurs at the metals surface interacts with the gas molecules, causing the design to be dissolved into the plate.

silicon dioxide etching, which uses hydrogen fluoride, and silicon etching, which uses xenon diflouride, are the two most popular types of vapor phase etching.

with rapid development of photoelectron technology, application area of laser marking machine becomes much wider and marking precision becomes much higher. development of laser industry is presented by 3 factors: firstly, laser technology which is used for processing related materials; secondly, mechanism and controlling system; thirdly, laser processing technique. as laser technology is mature for a long time, people s effective control of laser equipment and laser processing technique become the bottle neck in application of laser marking technology.

at present, there are many manufactures of laser marking machine in china. competition of laser equipment technology has been changed to effective control of laser equipment and processing technique. whether the following questions can be solved or not becomes the key in competition: 3d multi-axis linkage high speed laser scanning vibration of fast impetus scanning format scanning precision malposition of synchronized scanning and to-and-fro scanning complex arithmetic and interpolation of regular graphics.

grey scale

common cnc engraver can t engrave spots with different shapes and sizes, so there is no grey scale. laser engraver has this function, so they have natural advantage in grey scale. people make use of this performance to save cost in pigmentation and increase layers of different graphics to enrich the presentation. when using the laser machine, users fill the graphics with different grey scale first (characters should be transformed to be graphics), then choose black and white mode for output of engraving, they can test the effect of different network. precision is less than 500dpi.

engraving materials

raw wood
wood is the most common material for laser engraving and cutting. wood with light color, such as birch, cherry and maple, is easily vaporized by laser and suitable for engraving. each kind of wood has its own feature, some of them is compact, such as hard wood which should use big power laser for engraving or cutting. please make a study on material before engraving.

plywood
there is no much difference between engraving plywood and wood, the only point is engraving depth shouldn t be too deep. edge of plywood after cutting is also black like common wood, the key point is what kind of material the plywood is made of.

wood engraving
generally speaking, depth for engraving on wood is deep, so laser power is big and color of engraved graphics on hard wood is deep. for light color, you can increase the engraving speed to work several times. sometimes there is soot produced during working process, if there is paint on wood, you can clean it by wet cloth, if not, wood surface may be defiled by soot which can t be fully cleaned.

wood cutting
generally, laser engraver can t cut wood deeply, max. cutting depth depends on wooden material and laser power. for cutting thick wood, cutting speed should be low, but wood may be burnt. users can use big reflective and focus lens to make repeated cutting.

pigmentation
wood is just like being burnt after engraving, matched with original color, it is more like art. color depth depends on laser power and engraving speed. color of some soft wood such as birch can t be changed no matter how long you engrave it. propylene can be applied for pigmentation of finished products.

how to bring a laser engraver and cutter function into fully play? —the most important thing is the daily maintenance for its efficient and safety. if did it, the lifetime of machine can be longer, the processing quality can be kept and improved in order to achieve high efficiency.

please execute the following steps seriously

1. connect the ground wire for safety

the laser power and machine body should be protected by ground wire well, the ground wire should be less than 4 for special purpose. the necessities are (1) keep the power work formally, (2) keep the laser tube life time longer, (3) can prevent the machine body shake from external disturbance. (4) prevent high voltage discharge from circuit damage. please connect the ground wire by all means.

2. keep the cooling water freely

please keep the water freely whether is tap water or circulating water pump. the cooling water can carry off the heat from the laser tube, the higher the water temperature is, the lower the light output power (15-20 c water is good), when water break, the tube will be heater and be easily broken, even damage the laser power. so it is necessary to check the cooling water frequently. when the tube have the hard fold or the water pump do not work, please check and maintain on time, in case the low output power make the equipment damage.

3. keep clean & maintenance, discharge air well and wipe usually.

it is necessary to clean and maintain the machine body for its formal working. the guide roll is the key part of the machine, it must be cleaned and kept lubricating, each bearing need to be filled oil periodely, which can make the driver flexible, processing precision and extend the machine lifetime.

4.temperature and humidity

the working temperature should be in the arrange 5-35 c.two things have to be done (1) prevent the circulating water in the tube freezing, please make the water out of the tube after machine stopped. (2) the laser power should be preheat above 5 minutes before working, the preheat time is longer in raining and humidity weather, make sure the moisture go out fully before the high pressure taken, in case the high pressure circuit broken.

5.proper use of laser high pressure key

the laser power is under stand by situation after the laser high pressure key opened, when you touch the manual light or wrong computer operation, the laser light will be out to hurt the people or goods unconsciously. it is better to stop the laser high power after each job, the (laser power can open), operator is prohibited to leave during machine working, in case accident happened, we suggest the continuously working time is below 5 hours, 30 minutes rest interval can be acceptable.
6. keep far from huge electricity quantity and strong quaking equipments

sometimes, the electricity quantity interference can make the machine fail, it is rare, but it is better to be avoided. therefore, please keep far from the large electric transmission and transformation equipments like larger welder, huge electric mixer and so on as well as the strong quaking equipment like forging press, the quaking from the earth is not good for the engraving effect.
7. prevent the thundering and lightening attack

only if the building prevents measures is reliable, that is no problem on this point.
special suggestions

please install a stable power at least 3000w above to prevent the circuit or computer burned in the unstable web and electricity areas.
8. maintain the pc operation stability

pc controlling is mainly used for engraving machine; please use the pc only for engraving machine except install the necessary graphic design software.
due to the web card and virus fire wall installed, the pc speed is influenced, please do not install the virus fire wall in the computer, and forbid the web card before engraving machine working.
9�� guide rail maintenance
during the guide rail working, there is massive dust from processing materials.
maintenance method: firstly, wipe the original lubricating oil and dust on the guide rail by cotton fabric, then coat a layer of lubricating oil on the surface and side face of the guide rail. the maintenance period is one week around.

10�� lower maintenance
after the blower working for a while, there is massive dust in the blower and tubes, the dust can affect the efficiency to make the smoke dust flow out incapable. maintenance method: unload the exhaust duct and clean the dust. maintenance period: once a month

11 screws fastening:
when machine worked for a long time, the moving system screws becomes loosen, which will affect the machine smoothness. maintenance method: fasten the screws by the gift tolls. maintenance period: one month around.

12 lens maintenance:
after long working time, the lens surface has a layer of dust, which will reduce the reflection ratio and transmittance to affect the working efficiency. maintenance method: wipe the lens dust by cotton bud dipped alcohol.

precautions against laser engraver operation

1. no earth connection permitted during machine working. the earth wire of laser power should be connected to the earth, doors windows or water tube facilities are not allowed to be connected. the earth wire should be connected to the outside ground.

2. please check if the water pump run water or not and if the laser tube is full of water. water run out from the water pump or not enough water in the laser tube is not allowed when machine is working.

3. the water container should be larger to promise the circulating water is around 20kg. the water temperature should be below 25 degree centigrade, the circulating water should be replaced when the water temperature is very high. it is better to use purified water as circulating water, which should be promised clean and replaced every four days.

4. the reflector and focus lamp should be wiped by special camera lens paper or medical cotton buds dipped alcohol and anther. (mixing ratio is 1:1), please keep clean once a week.

5. the blower should be opened when engraving, in case pollute the lens and focus lamp.

6. the laser water tube should be running out in winter, in case the laser tube frost crack.

7. this laser light is invisible light, flammable materials and explosive goods are prohibited to be put nearby the machine, in case the laser deviation result in fire breaking out.

8. the operator leaving is not allowed during machine working, in case unnecessary losses happen.

9. open the machine by laypeople is prohibited, because there are laser and high pressure inside the machine.

10. any irrelevant total reflection or diffuse reflection goods put in the machine are not allowed, in case the laser light is reflected to people or flammable materials.

11. opening machine is prohibited under unstable pressure, or else, voltage regulator should be used.

12. operator not be trained is prohibited to operating the machine.

daily maintenance
the horizontal type machine light path is complicated, in order to make sure the light can pass through each lens and keep the max laser light power, light adjusting can improve the engraving efficiency. there are following methods to adjust the light path.

1. wipe the lens
the reflector and the focus lamp are consumables. if the maintenance is not in time, the dust from engraving will erosion the coating of lens, if the coating of lens broke, the lens cannot reflect the light fully and will be absorbed the heat by engraving, which will impact the engraving effect and lens, broke. the following is the lens maintenance.

a) please look into the reflector surface golden film, which should be average color, if have any spots, please wipe softly by the absolute ethyl alcohol cotton buds to clean, if any broke in the golden film, please replace it.

b) screwing out the focus lens cap and take out the lens, if any spot on it, please wipe it by absolute ethyl alcohol cotton buds.

2.adjust the light path

(1) put the focus lamp on the top left corner, make the forth reflector aperture face to the third reflector, as follows figture1.
(2) look into the forth reflector incidence point, the deviation of the incidence point is adjusted through up and down ,left and right screws on the back of the first reflector.
(3) put the focus lamp to the top right corner and bottom left corner like figure 2 and 3, the second reflector deviation is adjusted through its own screws on the back of the reflector, the third reflector deviation is adjusted through the screws on the back of the reflector.
(4) put the lens to the position 4, bottom right corner, after checking no deviation, the adjustment is done, or else, adjust again by 1,2,3 positions.