iPhone 6 - can engraving be dark with CO2 laser?

[Jim Collins]

Hi all,
I just engraved my first iPhone 6, which came out great (I thought). The customer - not so much. She asks if the engraving can be darkened.
I believe the case is anodized aluminum- engraving left it the frosty white color.
I've thought of trying Cermark, oxidizer solution, colored wax, RubNBuff, shoe polish but I'm very concerned about what these might do to the unengraved surface.
Has anybody solved this for anodized?
thanks,
Jim

30W Epilog Helix - Xenetech 1625

[Bert Kemp]

She should have made her wishes known before you engraved it. Most AA will engrave white, after all Alum is white or grayish white. Being that you just remove the anodizing and really don't have any depth to the engraving, so filling with something would be difficult. If you can put it back in and get it lined up perfectly, you might cermark it, or you could mask it and paint it after a second run. If you decide to cermark it tell her what color its going to be when done, most likely BLK if you mask and paint she has choices:D Good Luck

[Mike Null]

I would not advise using Cermark on iPhones for three reasons. First, it is unlikely that the anodic finish has been removed thus the Cermark won't stick. Second, aluminum is very difficult to mark with Cermark and doing so would probably raise the temperature high enough to do some damage to the phone. Three, it is unlikely that you can accurately register the image over the one previously engraved.

The whitish mark is the mark a CO2 laser will always produce on anodized aluminum. You'll need to advise your customers how it will look before beginning.

Painting will come off rather quickly so I wouldn't consider that.

Engraving the phone with a fiber laser would produce a black or dark gray mark but there is no other way that I am aware of to do it.

Welcome to SMC, I wish we had an answer that would make your customer happy.


PS: If you were really a brave soul you could over engrave it with your Xenetech. I am not that brave nor would I like buying a new iPhone.:)

[Scott Shepherd]

I agree with Mike. I wouldn't try Cermark on it. It's anodized aluminum, it is what it is, not much you can do to change that. Tell her to call Apple, not you, you didn't anodize it ;)

[Bill George]

Hi all,
I just engraved my first iPhone 6, which came out great (I thought). The customer - not so much. She asks if the engraving can be darkened.
I believe the case is anodized aluminum- engraving left it the frosty white color.
I've thought of trying Cermark, oxidizer solution, colored wax, RubNBuff, shoe polish but I'm very concerned about what these might do to the unengraved surface.
Has anybody solved this for anodized?
thanks,
Jim

30W Epilog Helix - Xenetech 1625

I'm been here since April or so but Have learned so much. Anyway to take a customers $600 Iphone and try to engrave without research is pretty brave. I doubt if you could ever get it lined up again perfect to re-do. My 2 cents worth.

[Dave Sheldrake]

+2 on what Mike & Scotty have said, engraving anodic finishes just leeches the colour out of the honeycombs, it doesn't actually change the surface, pure anodise (aluminium di-hydroxide) is colourless and the colour is provided by microscopic pockets of dye sealed into the surface that then have the top of the pockets collapsed with either steam or heat.

The back surface of the 6 is thin...VERY thin and with 32,000 tiny parts inside I'd be careful before doing anything physical to it ;)

best wishes

Dave

ps: handle with care, they bend for fun ;)

[Gary Hair]

I have lasered a few with my fiber and then oxidized them, they came out really nice! Not sure if you'd get the same results with a co2 though, I doubt it.


Hi all,
I just engraved my first iPhone 6, which came out great (I thought). The customer - not so much. She asks if the engraving can be darkened.
I believe the case is anodized aluminum- engraving left it the frosty white color.
I've thought of trying Cermark, oxidizer solution, colored wax, RubNBuff, shoe polish but I'm very concerned about what these might do to the unengraved surface.
Has anybody solved this for anodized?
thanks,
Jim

30W Epilog Helix - Xenetech 1625

[Ross Moshinsky]

The solution is give the customer a discount, apologize, and learn your lesson.

The lesson is make sure the customer knows what they're getting. This took me only a few minutes but it gives the customer a very good idea what they are getting.

302944

[Clark Pace]

There is always extra stress when doing something like that for me. If the laser goofs, if I goof. So in this case I carry anodized aluminum case that fit over iphones. That way if I goof, or if there is any problem it's only a few bucks. If the customers pieces is engraved not the way the customer envisions it, there can be bad customer feelings, and loss of future business.

So I tend to not do those kind of jobs. And if I do, be sure the customer knows that there are risks.

[Mike Null]

I do a fair number of iPhones, iPads, Ipods and laptops. I have photo examples as Ross has shown. Apple will engrave with a fiber laser if you order a new item from them. The engraving is black and has about .008--.010" depth.

[matthew knott]

Apple use a 'special' type of fiber for the black engraving, running a very short pulse length and very high frequency, unless you have an extended range SPI to IPG you won't match it but you can get a nice dark grey with a normal fibre. Oxidising is probably not an option as co2 normally just bleaches the colour out and you need bare aluminium to oxodize! New backs are not expensive for an iPhone5 so it's not to bad !!!!

[Gary Hair]

you can get a nice dark grey with a normal fibre.

What settings would you use for that Matthew? I haven't had much success with dark marks on aluminum, but then again I haven't done much experimenting either... 99% of what I'm doing is deep engraving aluminum and stainless as well as a boatload of black anodized aluminum.

[matthew knott]

Set the power hi 95% or higher , use a low frequency around 25khz and speed quite slow 150mm/second

[Gary Hair]

Set the power hi 95% or higher , use a low frequency around 25khz and speed quite slow 150mm/second

Thanks Matthew! I ended up with 100% power (30 watts), 25khz and 100mm/sec. Attached is a pic of the engraving with and without oxidizing - pretty obvious which is which...

Thanks for the help!

[Mike Null]

Gary

FWIW, I had a fiber laser company send me a brass cartridge they had engraved and it took 7 minutes to get a good quality black mark. I believe they used a 10 watt unit.

[Gary Hair]

Mike - I just engraved 15 cartridges, 5 nickel and 10 brass - they took about 15 seconds each and had a nice dark mark but not exactly black. I can't imagine why it would have taken them 7 minutes... My 30 watts vs their 10 watts would make some difference but I wouldn't imagine it would be that much. Maybe the size of the engraving? Mine was about 1/4" tall by 1-1/2" wide. Could also be the type of laser - galvo or gantry? A gantry fiber isn't really much faster than co2 from what I have seen anyway.

FYI - The "test" I attached took 4.5 seconds and is 4mm tall x 20mmwide.


Gary

FWIW, I had a fiber laser company send me a brass cartridge they had engraved and it took 7 minutes to get a good quality black mark. I believe they used a 10 watt unit.

[Mike Null]

This was an RMI galvo unit. That kind of time would be a show stopper for me.

[Gary Hair]

This was an RMI galvo unit. That kind of time would be a show stopper for me.

That would be for anyone Mike! Unless they were engraving the entire surface all the way round, there is no reason it should take that long.