Cermark rubbing off

[Craig Matheny]

Did over 700 electrical plates S/S about 50 of the plates the Cermark is wiping off literally there is no coating on the S/S and all wiped with acetone to clean first and aloud to dry the mark that is left is real light on the plates if at all. Any ideas what could cause this as I need to fix these asap.

[Joe Hillmann]

I have only played with a couple stainless outlet covers but all of them had a varnish on them. When I tried marking them at regular power on the yag it just barley marked. When I turned the power way up in engraved nicely and the varnish flaked off.

[Dan Hintz]

What power/speed are you running them at? Assuming there's no coating that needs to be removed before spraying the Cermark (which there could very well be), you should be somewhere in the 15S/100P area...

[Craig Matheny]

Well I got it done originally I ran at 45 sp 100pwr so I went to 30 sp and 100 power and all went fine. Thanks

[David Takes]

Craig,

Were the plates Leviton brand? If so, I have found that some of their plate alloys take a little more power than most stainless does to get a good bond.

[Craig Matheny]

Craig,

Were the plates Leviton brand? If so, I have found that some of their plate alloys take a little more power than most stainless does to get a good bond.

Very good David it turned out that there where Levitrons....Mental note made

[David Takes]

You won't have this problem with Hubbell or Pass & Seymour plates. Most Leviton plates have a plastic protective tape that has to be removed. This issue seems to happen with the plates that have the blue colored protective tape. I do enough of these to know which need an extra kick of heat by slowing down the machine. It is normally the plates that have more of a matte aluminum look to the back of them.