Cermark on Nickel Plating

[Tracey Bakewell]

I have searched this subject everywhere and feels like I already know the answer, BUT, I have successfully done brass and chrome with my laser using cermark. I have a 50 watt V-Class ULS laser, and the brass had no coating, but the chrome, I had take my same brass pieces and had it chrome plated and never needed to remove a coating. Both my brass and chrome have always came out beautifully.

Now I have a customer asking if I can do nickel plated material. It is of very high quality. If I run a test similar to my chrome settings, do we think it may work? I have very little cermark on my shelf right now and wanted to see if anyone has gone down this path yet? They have given me a piece to test with.

If I am successful, they have also asked what I know about the cermark gassing out??? They will be using this piece in a clean room and wanted to know how the marking solution (after engraving) will react to their clean room environment? Any one know what I or they are talking about there?

Any thoughts or opinions will be great!
Thanks!
Tracey

[Dan Hintz]

If I am successful, they have also asked what I know about the cermark gassing out??? They will be using this piece in a clean room and wanted to know how the marking solution (after engraving) will react to their clean room environment? Any one know what I or they are talking about there?

There is no outgassing of a mark, mainly because there's no VOCs to boil out. CerMark is used on medical implants, so I think a cleanroom would be okay.

[Tracey Bakewell]

Dan, thank you for that!!! I will call and let them know, but for now... testing testing testing! Fingers crossed! I really need this account :)

[Gary Hair]

Tracey - I have had great success with nickel plated steel and cermark. It lasers about the same as stainless, same speeds and same results. Do a power grid to be sure and you should have no problem!

[Tracey Bakewell]

SWEET!!! I am testing right now, BUT all my cermark was dried up (shows you how often I've been using it lately). So, I put nuts/bolts in each container with high content alcohol, and shook for about an hour (on and off) and married all the containers, looks like I got a nice first coat. trying "1234" now!!! Will post results :)

[Tracey Bakewell]

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD IT WORKED!!! FIRST TRY!!! I'm just so excited! My settings were Power: 80, Speed 15%, Max PPI and DPI

I still think it could be blacker, so I will play around with my settings, maybe less power and speed? I had lost all my settings for this laser from when I had everything dialed in in 2006, all my las files were not backed up so when my laptop crashed gone went my settings. I find that if I have spoke in a thread here I can go back to my own documented testing :)

[Tracey Bakewell]

Oh, and maybe the amount of dilution affected this as well?

I'd post pictures but due to the fact that I signed a document that states "This document contains Confidential and Proprietary Information which shall not be disclosed, transferred or used for any other purpose without authorization" I think pretty much sums it up... so if I need help, I'll have to take a seriously closeup which my cell phone can't handle focusing on :)

[Gary Hair]

Try 100% power and 30-40% speed - no reason for using anything less, also try 600 dpi, any higher will just take longer and not really give you better results - especially with a 50 watt laser. On my puny 30 watt I use 300 dpi, 100% power and 10-20% speed and get almost perfect results with stainless and nickel plate. Dilution will affect the mark but I have found that thinned about like milk works fine. A thin coat will work better than thick, you'd be amazed how little you actually need.

[Tracey Bakewell]

Awesome, thanks for the input! I submitted my quote and photos to the customer as they were happy with the rush testing I did with all my disclaimers. So, fingers crossed!!!