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Don Necaise
05-05-2009, 12:53 AM
I have a Xenetech 13x25 and when I engrave smaller letters at the height of.125 Some of the letters dont look like they are engraving all the way.
Should I need to change the dpi when engraving smaller letters or does that matter.

Keith Outten
05-05-2009, 6:08 AM
Don,

I operate an XLT 1325 at CNU and I have the same problem. I've never been able to come up with a speed and power setting that provides fine detail well and I have assumed that it is the lens or it could be software related. The very fine lines that are are part of our logo never engrave well unless the logo is large.
.

Dave Johnson29
05-05-2009, 10:38 AM
I have a Xenetech 13x25 and when I engrave smaller letters at the height of.125 Some of the letters dont look like they are engraving all the way.


I would try for the highest DPI and a slow speed for the troublesome letters. Use a different color for them and map the speed etc. just for those letters. Also if you laser allows it, use a high frequency too.

Albert Nix
05-05-2009, 12:54 PM
If I have a problem with fine detail I use a higher dpi and if I have to I will plop in th 1.5 lens.

Scott Shepherd
05-05-2009, 1:22 PM
There are 3 parts to every letter. Ascenders, decenders, and the middle part (not sure the name for that). Since the letters are so small, there is very little time for the laser to come on, stay on, and turn off. Especially on items like the dot on an "i" on small letters.

I do 3 point text, lowercase, and I run it at 100% speed and it's very sharp. However, the ULS has a feature made for doing this. It has a tuning ability for materials. You run the text, examine it under a magnifying glass and you'll see if the ascenders or decenders need to be adjusted. You can tune all 3 items and they will all be matched up and sharp.

If you don't have the ability to adjust those items, I think slower speed is about your only choice.

Dan Hintz
05-05-2009, 1:30 PM
Steve,

This brings up a question I've been meaning to ask... does your text tuning change from material to material? Right now I run the test squares to tune the machine for each substrate, but I've never needed to work with small text, so I didn't know if the "extra" tuning options in the control panel changed with each substrate, as well, of if they were set just once.

Scott Shepherd
05-05-2009, 3:38 PM
Yes, it does change for each material. You might get away with a blue/white rowmark setting on red/white or black/white rowmark, but if you tune it to LaserMark and then put in Multigraph, or metalgraph it will be different.

You really do have to tune in to the material and it makes an amazing different in just how sharp the text can end up.