Deciding what to get
Hey guys,
First post here. Being browsing this site for quite some time now and have started looking into laser engraving. As a hobbyist i've been meaning to engrave some titanium(Ti-6Al-4V) for myself. Has anyone have any experiences with titanium? How much watt would i need? And what type of laser? I've heard from others its close to stainless steel and Co2 laser with Cermark. Also what about the lens? If someone could kindly enough to steer me to the right direction it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Similar Threads:
Hiya Spoofy,
If you want to do any decent engraving on Ti get a Yag, expensive and limited in what they can do but the only real choice for engraving metal.
A few questions though:
Where are you in the world?
What budget are you looking at?
How much space do you have?
What sort of space do you have ? (Industrial unit, living room, garage etc)
best wishes
Dave
Thanks Dave for the fast reply.Originally Posted by Exsecratio
Currently in Canada.
Not too sure about the budget yet i wouldn't need a machine thats too big.
Most likely in my garage, would just be a hobby.
I've looked at Yag, but I would like to use other materials as well in the future. I was wondering if anyone have gotten good results with Cermark and co2 on ti
Last edited by spoofy; 07-04-2013 at 04:58 AM.
@spoofy,
what is your size of titanium? how about laser fiber marking machine or YAG diod marking machine ?
If fir your demands ,feel free to contact me
Best Regards
Lucy Lee
G.WEIKE LASR
han@wklaser.com
Not that big something that will fit in a garage would be fine. Do you guys have any retailers in the NA?@spoofy,
what is your size of titanium? how about laser fiber marking machine or YAG diod marking machine ?
If fir your demands ,feel free to contact me
Best Regards
Lucy Lee
G.WEIKE LASR
han@wklaser.com
our fiber laser working area is 150*150mm,total machine size is 91*74*156cm, is that ok? we have dealer in North America
Best Regards
Lucy Lee
G.WEIKE LASER
han@wklaser.com
That size would be enough. Could someone kindly answer some of my questions instead of just pushing me to buy?
I would like to use other materials in the future other than Titanium. Have anyone had any experiences with engraving titanium using Co2 and Cermark? If so what watt, lens, brand of laser etc..
Hiya Spoofy,
Cermark / Thermark is good but expensive to use, I've used it on TI with a 40 and 80 watt CO2 laser but to be honest I'm not a big fan of coating type metal marking. YAG or Fiber is the way to go for metals but won't be any good on woods etc.
Laser brands make little difference, a 40 watt Shen is much the same as a 40 watt Weike or Rabbit or Golden Laser , Laser pro, Redsail etc etc, they all use similar / the same lens's and tubes, most all use the same couple of brands of controller. Chinese stuff is better value for money but western stuff is better quality.
For an initial foray into the laser market / game I'd say go with Chinese glass tube on a Leetro controller with a 40 watt+ tube. The super cheap lasers are to be honest total trash and the high end Western stuff is a big investment for what starts out as a hobby.
$2500 would get you something reasonable to play with and use without the huge costs of a western RF unit (a western machine the same overall spec will be closer to $15,000)
Chinese machines can be a bit of a play around to get working at peak performance but 99% of them do run straight out of the box at acceptable standards. A little refining and you can get excellent results from them.
The only real issue with lasers is the duel purpose, metal + organics like wood etc absorb well at different wavelengths so the make of machine isn't really the limiting factor, simple physics is.
In effect a $50,000 western made Universal CO2 won't perform any better on stainless steel than a $3,000 Chinese CO2 machine does, sure the western will be faster but the wavelength 1064 is the issue, the extras like servos, flashy controllers and nice paintwork can't change the physics of what the beam can actually do.
Some purists from both camps will compare Western to Chinese and expound how rubbish Chinese glass tubes are compared to their nice metal RF units, sadly that's much like me comparing my Honda Civic to my SLR, of course the SLR is a better car, it should be it costs THIRTY times as much.
hope that helps
best wishes
Dave
Co2 laser can't engraving on metal ,except the oxidation or with some paint on , so usally ,YAG(50w) or fiber laser(10w or 20w) is better
Reply with Quote
