Color engraving on Titanium

[Scott Weinstein]

Alright... I am intrigued!

This is a pretty cool concept. Has anyone out there scene this before?

http://www.eddystonedesigns.com

[Joe Hillmann]

They are using a yag or fiber laser. Different colors are different power settings. I have never done titanium before but on a piece of polished stainless I can get a whole range of colors, browns, blues, tans and yellows. Although I have never got red before.

Edit: A few months back we had a discussion about this and if I remember correctly Bruce Boone did some testing on a piece of titanium and put up pictures of the range of colors he got.

[John Salitsky]

Petty cool! I think titanium is pretty pricey though.

[Joe Hillmann]

Petty cool! I think titanium is pretty pricey though.

I was thinking the same thing and wondering how they can sell the bottle openers for that price with the engraving. I am thinking it may actually be titanium nitride. If you look it up it comes in many many colors depending on how hot it was heated which would make it great for laser coloring.

[Brian R Cain]

They are using a yag or fiber laser. Different colors are different power settings. I have never done titanium before but on a piece of polished stainless I can get a whole range of colors, browns, blues, tans and yellows. Although I have never got red before.

Edit: A few months back we had a discussion about this and if I remember correctly Bruce Boone did some testing on a piece of titanium and put up pictures of the range of colors he got. I was asked to demonstrate Universal's HPDFO to a University where they were experimenting, using an X-660 to add color to titanium jewellery. At that stage they were still playing around with the settings to see which colors they could get. The HPDFO, having a smaller spot with more concentrated energy gave them a whole new bunch of colors to play with.

[Richard Rumancik]

A company called SPI Lasers in the UK has done some work on colorizing metals with a fibre laser. It is still in early stages and not used that much for industrial applications yet as the colors are not quite predictable enough. Also some colors can take a lot of laser time to achieve. The colors are not really vibrant (in my opinion) but they will have some applications.

Here's a sample:

http://www.spilasers.com/applications/redenergy/colour_marking_with_a_fiber_laser.aspx

If you do any searches on SPI make sure you spell "colour" with the "u".

There is a 1-hour SPI podcast that I saw last year that was interesting - I think you have to "register" but it's not too painful. The podcast is called "Insights into metallic marking and engraving with fibre lasers". If you search on the title you will find it.

I did not know that you could do colorizing using a CO2 laser. But I suppose anything that heats the metal to the right temperature will have an effect on color. (Jewelry makers historically just use a torch to generate color on titanium although it is not that predictable nor can you be very selective.)

[Bruce Boone]

It is indeed very hard to get repeatable results. Part thickness can have an effect on how much heat gets pulled away and things like that. I believe on a yag or fiber laser, you put the part a few mm's out of focus. I have seen some of the 20 watt fibers do a pretty good job with that at jewelry shows on business cards, but I do wonder how consistant on real parts the technique is.