Aluminium Engraving

[John Bion]

Hi All,

I have never engraved aluminium, just had no demand until now. As I understand it, most folks engrave anodised aluminium. I have been asked to engrave something similar to the attached image, this is a bare aluminium with a black/grey engrave mark. How would I achieve this? Would I use cermark? Would this be better on a cnc, but getting the tones would be awkward.

Any help would be much appreciated.

339647

[Ross Moshinsky]

There are silver aluminum that engraves black. Alumark and LazerBlak are two. That's what I'd recommend.

[John Bion]

Thanks Ross, I will have a look around for a supplier locally.

[Makrel Johnson]

For gray areas I drop the resolution and shoot a 40% gray.

When you do Cermark, think of the way newspapers do shading... dot saturation. Also, be prepared for a learning curve with Cermark. For my 40w Helix on Yeti mugs, I have to make the coating area near opaque with LMM-6000 to get a good black mark @ 20s/100p/300d/Stucki. Even then the grain from the steel peeks through.

- Mak