Ano Question

[Braden Todd]

I do a lot of anodized aluminum and while trying to do a sample for a new job/customer I came across some black ano that for the life of me would not go white! Initial run left a grey look to the engraving, tried to reduce the power and even dpi but nothing seemed to help me to achieve the white mark I was after. Only thing that made it pop was going the whole way through to the metal! I ran it on my 75w epilog ext, 30p 65s. I know the book says to do 100s but the mark was only 2" long and I was using center of engraving so I figured the head would never reach 100s and only wear out my motors trying to do so.

Has anyone ever run into this before? Any ideas on what is causing the white to not come through?

Thanks!

[Dan Hintz]

Two possibilities come to mind:
1) It was Type III anodizing... very hard, and thicker than Type II (what's usually seen).
2) The anodizing was poor, and no amount of lasering will return a white background. I can tell when the anodizing shop has not checked their tanks, not regulated their power, etc. because the marks turn out more of a putty/gray than near-white.

[Braden Todd]

Thanks Dan. I think #2 may be what's going on here.

Was hoping to catch a quick and easy job after all our rain storms!