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Adolf Atienza
03-17-2014, 2:15 PM
Hi guys,

I have a fiber laser, i am able to engrave on stainess, brass etc. however, i am having a problem with engraving on pink copper or pure copper. Does anyone have any solution for this? Any help will be much appreciated

thanks

Dan Hintz
03-17-2014, 2:44 PM
What power are you working with? Copper will be one of the more difficult metals to work with due to the wavelengths involved... copper is just barely within the working range of a fiber system, but you really want some serious power behind it if you hope to do anything useful.

Adolf Atienza
03-17-2014, 2:55 PM
What power are you working with? Copper will be one of the more difficult metals to work with due to the wavelengths involved... copper is just barely within the working range of a fiber system, but you really want some serious power behind it if you hope to do anything useful.

Thanks dan. I usually do 50 power and 50 speed on my machine. I even tried 75 power. But it didnt engrave. It just left aa thin white mark of my logo. I do not want to use 100 power as it may be too much for the machine ( it may break am i correct.?) and will the high reflective surface of copper damage the laser engraver? Thanks

Dan Hintz
03-17-2014, 2:59 PM
50 power of what? What's the max power of your laser? Put that info in your sig so no one has to ask next time and we can answer questions more quickly...

Adolf Atienza
03-17-2014, 3:03 PM
Thank u dan. Iwill check on The specifics of my machine. Im sorry i am new to the forum. Thanks! Ill update u once ive checked

Adolf Atienza
03-17-2014, 3:22 PM
50 power of what? What's the max power of your laser? Put that info in your sig so no one has to ask next time and we can answer questions more quickly...
Hi dan, i checked my machine. It says the max power is 100 watts. Its a china fiber laser engraver and its model is 1152FL

Adolf Atienza
03-17-2014, 3:38 PM
Hi dan, i checked my machine. It says the max power is 100 watts. Its a china fiber laser engraver and its model is 1152FL
Hi dan heres a pic of the specs 284992

Scott Shepherd
03-17-2014, 3:43 PM
100W fiber laser? :eek: You sure that's not 100W of power being used, not the wattage of the laser? I could be wrong. I thought 100W fiber's would cost big big money.

Joe Hillmann
03-17-2014, 4:21 PM
I assume it is a galvo head laser? I would be running it at about 95% power and about 20 inches per second. It should cut right into the copper. If I remember correctly I think I was warned about copper being a risky metal to engrave. It can flash back into the laser and cause problems, it can also reflect of the metal and burn things that is reflects on to.

Dave Sheldrake
03-17-2014, 4:59 PM
Copper...the bane of my life even on a 7.5Kw system :(

Be aware Adolf, big lasers use copper mirrors to give you some idea of how reflective it can be :(

cheers

Dave

matthew knott
03-17-2014, 5:15 PM
I googled your machine, looks to me like its a 10 watt laser, not sure where the 100 watts on the label comes in, but i suspect a typo as it would draw more that 100 watts from the mains (in fact the spec sheet says 800(watts). Your really going to struggle with a 10 fiber on copper, just not enough energy as it will only be a .5mJ , The only hope you have is to use a shorter focal length lens, maybe a 100mm, but chances are it will already be using a 160mm lens (100x100mm marking area) so its not going to give a big improvement.
We have a 30 watt 1.5mJ fiber and it struggles with copper, we use a YAG for these jobs, we also had on loan an 80 watt 4mJ pulsed fiber, and its a beast, that did copper with a 100mm lens, its about as big as you can go with a pulsed fiber.

Bottom line use 20Khz, power 100% and slow speed (50mm/sec) and hope for the best


http://www.ckkgroup.com/upload/hot_product/f/20131018122108_IonKuR.pdf

Adolf Atienza
03-17-2014, 7:38 PM
I assume it is a galvo head laser? I would be running it at about 95% power and about 20 inches per second. It should cut right into the copper. If I remember correctly I think I was warned about copper being a risky metal to engrave. It can flash back into the laser and cause problems, it can also reflect of the metal and burn things that is reflects on to.
Hi joe and dave. Has any of you guys tried on copper before or has anyone had a problem with the laser light reflecting back and damaging the machine? ( with either engraving on copper or brass)

ive tried engraving on copper before, lucky it didnt break my machine.. Now ill get worried.
but i was doing some research, i found out u can use some sort of cenmark spray before engraving. I dont have cenmark available in my area, however i found out u can use dry moly lubricant instead ( available in machine or bearing shops) . Anyone tried this?

Adolf Atienza
03-17-2014, 7:40 PM
Thanks also scott n matt. Will reply to ur message in a bit. Gotta get ready for work.

Joe Hillmann
03-17-2014, 9:17 PM
Hi joe and dave. Has any of you guys tried on copper before or has anyone had a problem with the laser light reflecting back and damaging the machine? ( with either engraving on copper or brass)

ive tried engraving on copper before, lucky it didnt break my machine.. Now ill get worried.
but i was doing some research, i found out u can use some sort of cenmark spray before engraving. I dont have cenmark available in my area, however i found out u can use dry moly lubricant instead ( available in machine or bearing shops) . Anyone tried this?


I have engraved copper before. I have a 50 watt laser but a long focal length lens so the power is spread out.

Halfway down this thread http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?186059-Engraving-before-chrome-plating&highlight=copper you will find pictures of my results. I think the engraving was around .01 deep and just a bit wider than that. I think the photo shows the results after several hundred passes. I have done more recently and find if I just want a mark I can do it in one or two passes, if I want a good deep etching I 50 or so passes at a speed of a few inches per second. If I ran it slower than that the copper would discolor from the heat. (This was from a year and a half ago so I can't remember much more than that.)

Maybe Matthew Knott can tell you if engraving copper is a danger to you or the laser?

I also don't think cermark or the dry moly or plaster of paris will work to well on copper. There are many threads of people trying them on copper with a co2 and having a hard time getting good results because the copper acts as a heatsink.

Dave Sheldrake
03-17-2014, 9:30 PM
It's possible Adolf but I avoid doing copper where possible so I'm not the best person to advise.

cheers

Dave

matthew knott
03-18-2014, 8:56 AM
Reflection is bad in general for lasers, and especially bad for laser that use amplifiers (like fibers) but most decent fibers have back reflection technology (dont know if yours has) and i never heard of or seen a pulsed fiber laser damaged by back refection, thats not to say it cant happen but its much less likely to happen on a low power, pulsed , galvo machine. You can somewhat reduce the risk by engraving of center.
BE EXTRA CAREFUL ON COPPER TO WEAR YOUR SAFETY GLASSES AND LOOK AWAY, if its not engraving then you can be sure all the beam is being reflected of somewhere !

Adolf Atienza
03-25-2014, 12:46 PM
Hi everyone. Sorry for the late reply. I appreciate the responses. Dave and joe, yes im going to try and avoid copper as i dont want to risk the machine. I did research and went to various hardware n car supplies shops and wasnt able to find the dry moly spray... (But i think it may not work after doing more research) And matt, i actually called up my supplier, it was a misprint for them to put 100w power on my machine. (maybe they done it intentionally? Hehe) but youre right, my supplier said my laser is 10w only.Thanks. He said i may need 50w to be able to engrave on the copper.