Cermark engraving gun

[Levs8223]

okay, so I'm new to laser engraving, i have a eBay 40 Watt laser and i purchased some cermark so that i could engrave some stuff onto my guns. well i lightly coated the part, turned to full power, and set the speed for 12.50. Wash of the cermark, and the letters and what not are all there, at first i thought it worked, but after i scraped with my nail a couple times, the black lettering came right off???
Could us some help or advice on what i may be doing wrong or if the laser just isn't strong enough? i got the power/speed ratio setting off of cermark website, so thanks in advance for anyones help!!!!

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[jeepers94]

I doubt your 40w laser is much more than 30w. Try increasing the dpi to 1000.

[Labmaster]

If i look at the parameter tables for the different cermark products suitable for metal ( TherMark Laser Marking - Laser Settings Charts ) i quickly noticed that the energy density has to be quite less.
For a 30W laser on steel you have to use 100% power (30W) with a scan speed of 70 in/sec, but 70 in/sec are over 1700mm/sec how the hell could this be done with a chinese ebay laser :-)
Yes, i might be possible but i doubt that the precision would be real high.
So i would set the power lower to be able to choose a lower speed, lets say 15% at 600mm/sec.

But in the end you should do test to find out the correct values.

Check this out: (TherMark Laser Marking - CerMark LMM6000 Black Laser Marking Ink for Metal)

If you are interested specifically in marking stainless steel, you should choose LMM6000, as it makes the darkest marks on this substrate. However, the process window for LMM6000 is somewhat narrow, so if ease of use is a concern, LMM14 may be a better option and its marks on stainless are not significantly different from LMM6000.

So it even depends on the specific cermark type how well you have to find the right values.

This is also interesting:
TherMark Laser Marking - Adjusting Your Laser

Determining the proper settings
While we can recommend basic power and speed settings to get you started (visit your product’s page for downloadable settings charts), it is important for you to determine your optimal settings based on your laser and your substrate. The best method to determine your best settings is to create a power grid on a scrap part. Please click here for an explanation of how to use power grids to determine your best settings.

best regards,
Walter