Fiber Laser and Cermark 6000

[Bill George]

I am spending hours learning what I can do with my new toy. Brass engraves beautifully, stainless can be a dark grey or brown. I took some scrap pieces and did trial and error using settings off this board, thanks Gary and Kev. The text came out decent and as expected kind of brownish.

Someone else posted a link to doing stainless withe Cermark and the plate with the number 1 -3 was another result of starting with a baseline and some trial and error. I have not tested the marks, only by rubbing with water and a rag, and a fingernail but they appear to be burnt into the metal. Sorry about the quality of the picture as this was polished Stainless.
My laser is 20 watt and only goes to 80 kH freq so I was not able to do anything higher but the link shows 200 k.

#1 2x 300 mm/sec 90% power 80k
#2 2x 200 mm/sec 90% power 80k
#3 2x 200 mm/sec 100% power 80k

I will do some more wear testing tomorrow and see if it holds up.

[John Kleiber]

Your using a Fiber Laser to bond Cermark to stainless? It was my understanding that the Fiber was not compatible with Cermark, only C02 type lasers.

Are you sure your actually bonding the Cermark, or is the Cermark simply being burned off and instead your annealing the stainless steel.

I did go to the link http://www.thermark.com/content/view/36/78/

It does state "Lasers that work: LMM6000 works equally well with CO2 and solid state lasers."

[Bill George]

After I posted yesterday, later on I used a kitchen scrubbing pad, kind of like a Scotchbrite pad only not so coarse. Only thing that happened is the stainless got really nice and shiny but the mark stayed.
Link and it was first posted on Sawmill Creek> https://www.cermarksales.com/lmm-6000-can-be-used-with-a-fiber-laser/

[John Kleiber]

Have you tried to laser at #3 settings without Cermark?

[Bill George]

Have you tried to laser at #3 settings without Cermark?

Yes John. I suggest you try doing with the Cermark LMM-6000.

[Naseem Khan]

Yes John. I suggest you try doing with the Cermark LMM-6000.

Had anyone tried this combination to mark black on natural colored aluminum (with a fiber)? Anodized, mill finish or plated.

[John Kleiber]

From the link it states the following...

"If you are using a "typical" 20 watt pulsed fiber laser you can use LMM 6000 to make a black mark on Stainless Steel with the following settings:..."

If someone has a fiber, why is Cermark even needed for stainless steel then. If I want a black mark I can simple anneal the stainless.

The reason I was interested in Cermark was to blacken plain steel.

I am not sure what the setting would be for a 50w. But I ran a test starting with your settings on a piece of steel plate.
2x, 200 speed, 100 to 30 power, 80khz

348835

Tried your settings again on stainless steel, again using the same settings.
The mark basically does not start to get black until I am close to anneal settings.
348836

Maybe Since my Fiber is 50w and cannot exceed 80 khz with EZCAD2 is the problem.

Despite my inability to reproduce black on stainless steel, looks like your able to make a black mark on stainless without issue.

I don't have time now, but I may try the low power setting and increase the speed to compensate for the increased wattage.

-John

[Bill George]

What I am wondering, I have a Raycus fiber source, maybe yours is different? I can not exceed 80 kHz and the OEM posting stated 200 kHz but I was happy to have it work. Stainless varies and of course you know that, so perhaps what I had to test on was not the same as yours?