Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Laser engraving and etching: going the distance

Laser engraving is the practice of making engravings of various types in a precise manner on any kind of material that a company uses in its product manufacturing. This has slowly replaced the metal tool bits which were used to etch upon products till recently.
The engraving process:
The machine usually has three workable components, the main laser from the beam is directed, and the controller which helps in moving and positioning the beam and the surface area on which the actual work is done. Usually shaped like a pencil, the laser emits the very high intensity beam which helps it to engrave and etch upon the various surfaces it is directed at. The controllers main function, as the name suggests, is to control the amount of intensity, the direction etc of the laser beam.
Usually the point of focus of the laser is where the engraving is supposed to be done, usually very small in size it changes the surface of the material when and as the intensity of thee laser increases. The high amount of heat usually burns away the material and at times makes small cracks or fissures in the material. Subsequently layers of material are removed and the engraving is done.
The various types of applications are:
1. Managerial applications
• Helps to make overall product identification which includes parts, number size etc easier.
• Helps engrave in specific company, brand logos, signs etc.
• Helps to mark out the exact features of the product like the voltage, pressure, speed etc.
• Since inventory management is very important for any company, laser etching can be used to do product tracking.

2. Applications in Manufacturing industry:
• Helps to do etching on various special substances like polymers, novel metal alloys etc.
• Has replaced the tool bits used for engraving on various natural and artificial substances.
• Can be used when there is very delicate and precise work which has to be done in case of coated material which have to de-coated or, in case engraving needs to be done on such surfaces in a very fine manner without actually disturbing the coating which has been done already, laser at 20-30 watts of intensity can be very useful in doing such kind of coating.


3. Applications in arts:
• It can be used to make personalized jewelry and also be used to engrave batch numbers, bar codes etc on various jewelry items which was not possible when engraving used to be done with the help of tool bits.
• IT can be used to make works of arts and be used to make intricate patterns, draw designs etc on surfaces.

If you would like to know more about Laser Engraving and Laser Engraving and Laser Etching please visit the website.

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