annodized aluminum streaks???

[TAMI WILSON]

My first attempt at annodized aluminum. see attached.
The test piece is supposed to be a solid rectangle on the left but as you can see the engraving differs depending if there is anything to the right. I sent this pic off to trotec but figured I might get answers from you as well. Is it operator error??

Tami

[Bill Overturf]

We have the same problem with our Rayjet 300 80 Watt try slowing your speed down

[Dan Hintz]

Looks like a tickle setting issue... I don't know if you can set the tickle pulse strength on Trotecs as easily as on Epilogs (it's a dipswitch there), but I have no doubt Trotec made provisions for such an adjustment.

EDIT: BTW, Bill's suggestion of slowing it down should resolve the issue, at least until you can get a hold of Trotec and adjust some settings.

[Mark Sipes]

The Trotec has adjustment capability in the software.

[Bill Overturf]

Ok Mark or Dan please explain the tickle settings to me. We engrave many items on our Rayjet that just seem like we have to go way to slow to get to engrave correctly. What exactly does the tickle do? I know we have setting to change it but I have never messed with it.

[Sandy Henry]

In Job Control, set to high quality - laser will always travel longest distance in Y axis - takes a bit longer but should solve the problem.

[Mike Null]

Do not mess with the tickle settings until you have tech support on the line.

My guess is that you're using a lot more power than you need. The object with anodized is not to engrave through the coating to the aluminum but to ablate it. It should have a whitish appearance.

There is also no need to use the ultra slow high quality setting for this material.

[Dan Hintz]

Ok Mark or Dan please explain the tickle settings to me. We engrave many items on our Rayjet that just seem like we have to go way to slow to get to engrave correctly. What exactly does the tickle do? I know we have setting to change it but I have never messed with it.

Tubes fire at a high rate of speed, thousands of times per second... they pulse. Without going into the physics of it, the tube tends to "settle" when it hasn't been fired lately (think in terms of milliseconds here, not minutes or hours). When a tube "settles", it takes longer to fire a pulse when commanded to compared to one that's ready. To prevent this settling, the tube is periodically pulsed (the tickle) with a very low power (won't cut, if set properly), so when it comes time to actually fire, the tube is primed and ready.

What bugs me the most is I would expect the pattern of incomplete engraving to be next to the areas of no text, and proper complete engraving next to the text (the text keeps it "warmed up", if you will). So, all of this could be due to another reason.. take it all with a grain of salt.

A good setting for aluminum is to "bleach" the anodizing... fast, and low power. On mine, that's in the 100S/20P range... Tami's machine is twice as fast at rastering (but more powerful), so I would expect her to be in the 100S/30P range, give or take.

[Bill Overturf]

Thanks Dan thats why I was curious. We have 2 machines the Rayjet 300 80 watt and a Xenetech 35 watt. Now while I understand that the Rayjet doesnt have near the speed of the Xenetech there are alot of substrates most actually that we can engrave faster on our lower powered machine. Its kinda weird

[TAMI WILSON]

Talked to trotec and they had me set job control settings to high quality. It is better but still not right, I ran out of aluminum so can't experiment more.

[Mike Null]

Tami

I can think of no reason why the HQ setting would improve what you are trying to do. Have you tried varying the resolution?

[Scott Shepherd]

What settings were used? Speed/Power/PPI?

[Teodor Pravicky]

My first attempt at annodized aluminum. see attached.
The test piece is supposed to be a solid rectangle on the left but as you can see the engraving differs depending if there is anything to the right. I sent this pic off to trotec but figured I might get answers from you as well. Is it operator error??

Tami

You might want to do rectangle first before text, because the tube is getting slightly weaker while engraving also another objects in a row. Or just double the power

[Dan Hintz]

the tube is getting slightly weaker while engraving also another objects in a row.

Uhm... what?

[Scott Shepherd]

Yeah, lost me there and lost me on the doubling the power. Anodized aluminum doesn't take much power. Burning it too hot can cause very poor results in my opinion.

[TAMI WILSON]

scott, i am at work but I think it was 50 p 100 s 500 ppi will check when i get home.

[dave cox]

I don't do anodised aluminium very often but it always gives grief similar to Tami.

New job arrived last week did a sample and not good, very small font double image, straight edges jagged , the laser seemed to be firing at different position when going left and then back right. New belt and bearings due so replaced them, a little better but not enough so phone call to our NZ supplier and he explained we can "tune" our Universal to compensate for physical wear (belts etc) so some time testing and best result plus 12 tune setting on anodised ali. Then tried same setting on laminate with same file same place, worse result than first effort on the anodised so more experimenting best result tune setting minus 3. I know this is strange so would like to hear others experiences.

Don't know what this tells you other than maybe anodised aluminium is tricky stuff and the settings can be quite different from other materials, I wonder if there is something to do with very quick heat absorption.

[Dan Hintz]

Seems a bit high power-wise, Tami... have you run a power grid test? I think you'll find cutting that power in about half will do you just fine.

[Scott Shepherd]

Seems a bit high power-wise, Tami... have you run a power grid test? I think you'll find cutting that power in about half will do you just fine.

That'd be my guess too.

Dave, I think you've got way too much power too. On our Universal, it doesn't take much to turn anodizing white. If you overpower it, you can have all sorts of problems. You'll fight it and fight it and never get it right. Find that sweet spot and you won't have any issues. No need to be adjusting all your image enhancement controls in the tuning area. Run it like you run everything else. I don't know what wattage laser you have, but I'd start at about 15 on the power and 100 on the speed on the Universal, image density of 4 or 5 (no higher than 5), and PPI at 500. It should be a nice, white image.