Speed by Percentage.

[Eddie Castaneda]

I've been engraving for a few months now and I should of asked this question. How do you figure speed with a percentage? Sorry if this is a simply answer

[Mark Sipes]

Not really sure what you mean 50% is half the max speed of your machine and so on...

the 300 flexx has a max speed of :

140 inch/sec / 355 cm/sec for CO2
78 inch/sec / 200 cm/sec for fiber


Percentage of Power applied at a given speed differs with material and depth.

[Dan Hintz]

Speed by percentage was relatively easy when most here were using machines rated around 70-75ips. Now that Chinese lasers have come into the mix, as well as the faster Trotecs, it gets a little more murky. Basically, look at what machine parameter provider uses and go from there. Here are some typical values:

ULS / Epilog : 70-75ips
Trotec : 140ips
Chinese : 25-60ips (varies widely with machine)

If a speed of 50% is given for a ULS, then run at 25% speed for a Trotec (assuming the same wattage). When wattage changes, well, you'll have to run tests as all substrates react differently to differing power levels... but the same sort of ratio should put you in the right ballpark.

[Gary Hair]

Speed by percentage was relatively easy when most here were using machines rated around 70-75ips. Now that Chinese lasers have come into the mix, as well as the faster Trotecs, it gets a little more murky. Basically, look at what machine parameter provider uses and go from there.

Which is exactly why it is so much better to provide speed and power in ips and watts and let each individual calculate for their machine. I almost always post ips and watts when someone asks a question and then advise them to calculate for their machine based on their specs. For example, my Explorer is 80ips in raster and 40 in vector, 30 watts - if someone doesn't know their machine specs then it doesn't really matter what is provided...

[Dan Hintz]

I'm usually too lazy to do the conversion for everyone who asks for parameters (though sometimes I will). Maybe in a lazy sort of way I expect the questioner to do a little work on their own. ;)

[Richard Rumancik]

I've been engraving for a few months now and I should of asked this question. How do you figure speed with a percentage? Sorry if this is a simply answer

You have to elaborate as to what you are attempting to do or how you want to use this info . . .

If you are trying to use some tabulated data for deciding what speed/power settings to use, then as long as the data is for a Trotec Speedy 300 flexx 60W CO2 Laser/30W Fiber Laser that has a tube about the same age as yours and has the same optics as yours, then it will provide you with a starting point. If the data is for anything else don't waste your time looking at it. Figure out your own settings by doing trials.

100% speed is the peak speed that your machine will achieve during rastering and is the speed that the vendors will typically quote. 50% speed will be roughly half of that. Unless of course the programmer who created the firmware for the machine built in fudge factors and corrections that make it not 50%. You may find that the actual speed is not even linear over the range 0-100%. So don't read too much into it. (Some manufacturers don't even tell you the maximum vector speed which will be much less that the raster speed.) The settings you determine are for your machine only and will change with time and will also be different if you change optics.

I know Gary means well trying to convert the speed % into an actual ips (inches per second) value. I wish that this was a reliable way to convert settings from machine to machine but I have my reservations as to accuracy.

If you look at old threads you will see many discussions about this - but it is my observation that trying to share settings or use tabulated settings is an exercise in futility. For marking, treat 100% as "fast" and 50% as "half-fast" and 20% as "slow" and don't try expect to be too scientific about it, as it is not science. These machines are not like CNC milling machines where you can enter exact parameters for speeds and feeds and can expect to achieve them on a consistent basis.

[Chuck Stone]

^^^^ What he said.
I don't even get involved in numbers.. they won't work for anyone else's machine
except in a general way.. fast, medium and slow. High power, lower power.
Even last year's numbers from my own machine aren't accurate today.. they're just
a general guideline.
And without a stopwatch, I can't tell the difference between 100% speed and 30%
speed on my machine by watching it. Below about 20% I can notice the difference.
I know for certain that 50% isn't half as fast as 100% in my shop..
So .. I don't know what the numbers even represent. I just know to repeat what
worked when I tested it.