Dark black anneal mark on stainless steel

[Ricky Mai]

Hi,

We have a 30W fiber laser from China.
I'm trying to make a dark black mark on stainless steel. But whatever I do the color never gets dark black. It's always a bit brown or grey.

The person that sold us this machine gave some recommended settings.
Frequency: 60-120khz
Hatch 0.01-0.03mm
Speed 50-200mm/s
Power 40-80%

I tried so many combinations of these variables but get no good results.
I also tried defocussing the laser - and +.
I even tried totally different settings.

Does anyone have another idea/setting that I could try?

[John Kleiber]

There are 150 different types of stainless steel so annealing results may vary. You are going to need to setup a series of tests that methodically mark with each variable power v. speed. Soon enough you will see a pattern emerge. Lighting is important also. What you see indoors could be a lot different than natural outdoor lighting.

347246

[Bill George]

Hi,

We have a 30W fiber laser from China.
I'm trying to make a dark black mark on stainless steel. But whatever I do the color never gets dark black. It's always a bit brown or grey.

The person that sold us this machine gave some recommended settings.
Frequency: 60-120khz
Hatch 0.01-0.03mm
Speed 50-200mm/s
Power 40-80%

I tried so many combinations of these variables but get no good results.
I also tried defocussing the laser - and +.
I even tried totally different settings.

Does anyone have another idea/setting that I could try?
There has been so much discussion on that same subject a Search will bring up answers you need.

[Ricky Mai]

Thanks, I will search the forum then!

[Gary Hair]

You don't have to go any farther than this post, it will give you all you need to know.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?248661-Engraving-Stainless-Steel-on-Epilog-Fusion-M2-dual-power

[Ricky Mai]

Thank you for the link.

[Bill George]

Thank you for the link.
And I am going to need to do the exact same thing when my machine gets here.
I think Gary is going to sell his his soon to be published book "Basics in Galvo Fiber Laser Settings"

[Gary Hair]

And I am going to need to do the exact same thing when my machine gets here.
I think Gary is going to sell his his soon to be published book "Basics in Galvo Fiber Laser Settings"

It comes with a free set of Ginsu knives!

[Ricky Mai]

Hey, that would come in handy! I would really like to know more about the book.

[Gary Hair]

Hey, that would come in handy! I would really like to know more about the book.

I tell you that it doesn't exist... I can also tell you that If I wrote all I know about fiber lasers it would be a very short book, more like a pamphlet, or an index card.

[Tim Bateson]

I tell you that it doesn't exist... I can also tell you that If I wrote all I know about fiber lasers it would be a very short book, more like a pamphlet, or an index card.

... also most would not apply to other types of Fiber Lasers

[Gary Hair]

... also most would not apply to other types of Fiber Lasers

Probably true, although I don't think fibers are as diverse as co2. With the exception of galvo vs gantry, and any mopa, they seem to work similarly. It would be interesting to send around a piece of stainless to everyone with a fiber and have them mark it using two different settings - the first would be the exact same for everyone and the second would be whatever is optimal for their machine to get the best mark. I'm betting that the first mark would be fairly similar from machine to machine and the settings used on the second mark would vary wildly due to the nature of how the various settings interact and how so many different settings can yield the same, or similar, results.