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View Full Version : Galvo lasers, with Video



matthew knott
07-16-2012, 4:09 PM
Got an order for cutting a load off i.d tags, was going to use the epilog as i can leave it all day running away, but when i realised just how slow it was i decided to fire up our home made co2 galvo, got it down to under 5 seconds per tag in the end,
Galvo machines are great for jobs like this as each one has a different number on it and the software does this automatically, am i right in thinking not many of you guys have a machine like this and prefer the epilog style, (which did a great cutting out job)?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPFrOc231jk

Scott Shepherd
07-16-2012, 4:31 PM
What's the dimension on the tag? I'll run a quick test and let you know how we'd make out with it.

Jiten Patel
07-16-2012, 5:02 PM
Matt,

It that the Co2 version we've been talking about? What lens you got on that and the detail looks pretty good. Marking field?

matthew knott
07-16-2012, 5:12 PM
The cut triangle is 35mm high, i think this is the ai file we used but im at home and dont have corel on my laptop right now.
No cant upload .ai for some reason, maybe find the pdf

Nope to big, its like this thing is trying to make it hard for me :(

Scott Shepherd
07-16-2012, 5:59 PM
I get about 6 seconds each to engrave them. The benefit is that I can engrave 25 of them in a row, I don't have to do them 1 at a time. It takes just over 2 minutes to engrave 25 of them at 500dpi, which I could probably cut down to 333 and be just fine with. So I don't see the big speed advantage on this application.

matthew knott
07-16-2012, 6:09 PM
Intresting! this is with the Speedy im guessing, dont suppose you could video it, id love to see one of those things going at full tilt, i always get better results if i run over the rowmark twice with lower power so i could cut the time to 3 seconds. Wish the epilog would run at your speed !!

matthew knott
07-16-2012, 6:31 PM
I cant find a real world example of the extra speed you would need to compare with a galvo, for example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTuxnx9tOGE&feature=related
This takes a minute ,
we could do that in about 10 seconds so how does this all equate?

Scott Shepherd
07-16-2012, 6:48 PM
Yes, I think it's all relative to the job. Some jobs are better for one while other types of jobs are better for the other.

I've PM'd you my email. Email me the file and I'll see what I can do to run a sample of it just engraving.

matthew knott
07-16-2012, 7:21 PM
replied, didnt spot the email address at first, sorry!

Bruce Boone
07-16-2012, 7:23 PM
Here's galvo action at its best. Check out around 43 seconds into it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4pwqef3Tzw

matthew knott
07-16-2012, 7:28 PM
That things got some power !!!

Bruce Boone
07-16-2012, 9:20 PM
Not bad, huh? Welding and cutting from the same laser. Very impressive stuff. I can't quite make out the wattage on the laser in about 8 seconds in, but looks to be to be a YLS-10000, which would have 10000 watts continuous. The laser is the small white box about 24" x 24" by about 36" tall. Mine won't be quite that impressive, but from the same family of lasers anyway. The inside is made from the same modules which have many dozens of small diodes glued to an aluminum panel. Each fires a beam into a hair fine fiber, and those fibers get combined. The modules put out 150 watts each, are air cooled, and are about the size of a thin briefcase. They just combine those modules into whatever power laser is needed. The ones rated for continuous use like that one can run flat out all the time. Others have their peak power delivered in pulses to keep things cooler and avoid the need for all the extra cooling considerations of the continuous running ones. That stuff is just too cool!

Scott Shepherd
07-17-2012, 9:38 AM
I got about 2 minutes to do 27 of them or about 5 seconds each.

I taped it, I'll get it up when I get a chance. That was engraving only, I didn't cut them out, since you just engraved them as well.

Bruce Boone
07-17-2012, 1:34 PM
Matthew, what is the limiting factor? Is the galvo going as fast as it can or maybe the power would damage the plastic, or something else?

matthew knott
07-17-2012, 3:15 PM
Its only a 30 watt laser so so with more power it would be quicker, the galvo are only doing 500mm Sec, they are happy up to about 3000mm
Also I get a better result running them twice so adds time. This is not really a good application of a galvo laser, its just our POS epliog takes ages and has taken to addding extra lines into the engraving again. If it where a car i would push it in a ditch and set fire to it and claim on the insurance ;) The galvos are quick when not engraving jumping between engraving areas or drawing vectors, as proved by Scott who can match the speed with a fast trotec

Scott Shepherd
07-17-2012, 8:48 PM
Sorry for the horrible quality. It's more like 1:40 seconds to do 27 of them. So that's just under 4 seconds each.

The dust halo around them is the air assist making a mess. I also had the room lights off so it wouldn't get the glare on the top cover, so all in all, the video is a hot mess, but it shows the motion.

Also, it engraved about .006"-.008" deep, so it's really cooking it. I didn't waste any time trying to get any settings perfect, I just set it to 100P, 100S and hit go.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC5nm1_TNBk

john banks
07-18-2012, 5:23 AM
The motion is impressive for a flying head. What does 100S relate to in inches per second (or mm/s) on the Speedy Steve?

Scott Shepherd
07-18-2012, 8:07 AM
I honestly have no idea. I've never known or looked into it. I've always thought those numbers were suspect because 100% speed when engraving 24" wide and 100% speed when engraving something 2" wide are totally different because it can't get to the 100% speed with a shorter stroke. So I've never put much into the numbers.

I could actually do this job faster, but I can't film all my secrets, now can I? :p

Jiten Patel
07-18-2012, 11:24 AM
Scott, I will wire you a pound for your secrets? Surely that should cover it seen as you such a nice guy!

Scott Shepherd
07-18-2012, 12:20 PM
Scott, I will wire you a pound for your secrets? Surely that should cover it seen as you such a nice guy!

Sure, a pound of gold, please :) 24K :)

matthew knott
07-18-2012, 3:09 PM
Nice!! Thanks Scott, learnt a lot from that, I still getting to grips with this type of machine. I can see there is no overhead on marking and non marking time as the carriage seems to move at a linear speed. Also see how doing a multiple array makes a big difference, we tend to engrave one item at a time as it often suits what we are engraving and we have a much smaller area, and of course with this you only have one sheet to load.
Also the marking time for the galvo machine lets say 5 seconds would be constant for any item, buy this I mean 50 would take 50 x 5 seconds, 1= 1 x 5 seconds, I assuming that just 1 on the trotec would take much longer!
Thats a nice machine, i do like the trotec stuff, seems put together so much better than anything else on the market.
Thanks Scott, thats given me something to think about !!!