Engraving stainless steel

[Mike Dempsey]

Happy New Year to everyone.

I have been asked by a design /marketing company to make a coaster out of various wood, glued together in strips. The central part of this square coaster has a polished to a mirror finish stainless steel strip which needs to have a company logo laser engraved on it. Unfortunately I cannot post a picture here as it is 'highly confidential' at this stage. Making the coaster will be tricky and time consuming as they want quotes for 5k, 10k, and 15k units but I am up for it and will bring in some mates to give me a hand. I am a cabinet designer/maker first who uses the laser to enhance products targetting the corporate sector. My question is am I better off using cermark spray and then engraving or asking for quotes from someone with a yag laser. Is using cermark a bit hit and miss or can you get consistent results with it. I dont think that there is anyone local to me who could do the job so it would have to be shipped out somewhere. My laser is a 25w galvonometer one (make I cant remember right now) so the coasters would have to be done one at a time, but I imagine would be reasonably quick. This is a high end job for a prestigious company and costs in making the coasters would be quite high and I would secure 50% up front, so I would have the money to buy a 'normal' epilog type laser if I have to.

Any advice on the lasering method.

Cheers

Mike

[matthew knott]

On those qtys i would have thought you could get a very good price subing it out, its going to be a lot of work with cermark and a 25watt galvo machine is going to have to run really slow.

[Dan Hintz]

For those quantities, I would order a YAG and do it myself... then I have a YAG to continue working with.

[matthew knott]

That would work as long as you do get the 50% up front! Ive seen lots of 20k orders that somehow shrink when it come to the crunch. I always find it amusing that peolpe want quotes for 1k 5k 10k 15k etc, why? what circumstances are there where you might need 1'000 or 15'000. Its standard practice to ask for a much larger qty quote than you will ever order as you will tend to get a lower price across the range as the big numbers really want the job. Just one of my bug bears quoting on multiple qtys over a massive range!! For that job you would also be better getting a fiber laser, you get a much better black on stainless!!

[Mike Dempsey]

All my contracts have 50% up front so I have all my outgoings covered. I have spoken to my contact and asked him to clarify with the client whether they are expecting a lot for a fiver or are willing to pay decent money for a real quality product. Im not wasting my time getting in quotes for the supply of the stainless steel and making samples up if they are not willing to pay good money. The quantity will also be an issue and when I quote for large numbers of items the price for the largest quantity is the price I am willing to do it for. I then add extras on for decreasing numbers. That way I'm covering all my bases. I can also alter the design on this project to make it easier to do. There are too many steps for each individual coaster and if possible I would like to cut that in half without dertacting from the wow factor. My way of doing business with clients is that 'is it technically possible' and 'does the client have the budget'. If those 2 criteria arent met I am not going to do anything for them.
I have also spoken to Epilog and Trotec today about getting prices for fiber lasers. Spraying and marking 15000 coasters doesnt really appeal to me and anything I can do in house is preferable.

Thanks for the advice guys

Mike

[Scott Challoner]

I was looking at the Trotec site the other day and it looks like they have a machine that offers both fiber and CO2 in the same package. That would be a pretty versatile machine.

[matthew knott]

Depending on the size of the engraving (anything smaller than 140x140) i would avoid a non galvo machine unless time is of no issue to you, expect a galvo machine to be about 5 times quicker, expect to pay £25k and up. You can rent lasers so that might be an option if you dont want to outlay all your money buying a laser. The trotec with both co2 and fibre is nearly as much as buying 2 lasers but handy if you have limited space, i saw one at a show the other week, but its so slow compaired to what im used to, marks i would expect to take 9 seconds taking nearly a minute. I would still like one as it would be great for doing big sign work!

[Ross Moshinsky]

The logical thing would be to call up Matthew and ask him how much it would cost to do the job.

In the end, I think sublimation or screen printing/stamping is going to be the best method. I'd also look into going with aluminum vs stainless if possible. Aluminum is much cheaper.