Does Tungum anneal like stainless steel?

[John Kleiber]

Does Tungum anneal like stainless steel?

-John

[Lee DeRaud]

If I'm reading this correctly, yes: http://www.supertechnical.com/products_files/TUNGUMALLOY.pdf
(see pages 8-9)

[Kev Williams]

According to FOBA laser: "Annealing marking is when an oxide layer is created on ferrous metals (iron, steel, high-grade steel) and titanium through localized heating"

Never heard of Tungum until today, and the best info I found was from a 1935 article: https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1935/1935%20-%201510.PDF

excerpt:


AN ALLOY OF WIDE APPLICATION

A NON-MAGNETIC, non-ferrous alloy composed of copper, aluminium, nickel, silicon and zinc, which is almost incorrodible and is not affected by the majority of commercial acids, is being increasingly widely used in aircraft work.
Tungum alloy, as it is called, is claimed to have more strength than mild steel and to be more ductile and easily worked, to have three times greater resistance to impact than has chrome steel, and to possess markable properties of resistance to fatigue.

Sounds a little too close to metals that don't anneal so well...?

[John Kleiber]

So far the best I have been able to achieve is a bright mark.
EZCAD Settings: 50w Laser, 30 Speed, 100% Power, 20khz, .01

Also tried wide variety of settings;

Speed from 25-50
Power from 25-100%
Khz from 20-80Khz

Laser barely has any effect.

To make sure I had settings correct, I tested a small piece of stainless steel scrap and the laser looked like a fireworks show on stainless.

I Googled "anneal Tungum" "laser mark tangum" and saw nothing about laser marking... just general overall annealing.

-John

[Gary Hair]

If you are getting "fireworks" then you need to move the Z out of focus. You want a bluish "glow", but no sparks. Try .01mm at 45 and 135, 225 speed, 19 power and 80 Freq., and about 2mm oof (either up or down)

[Lee DeRaud]

I Googled "anneal Tungum" "laser mark tangum" and saw nothing about laser marking... just general overall annealing.I apologize for answering the question you asked instead of the one you didn't.

[John Lifer]

I don't think that it will work at giving you a dark mark anneal, your white/light mark is probably best you'll achieve. But if this is a potentially good job, contact the company, I'll bet their technical folks can tell you quick.
http://tungum.co.uk/contact/

[John Kleiber]

If you are getting "fireworks" then you need to move the Z out of focus. You want a bluish "glow", but no sparks. Try .01mm at 45 and 135, 225 speed, 19 power and 80 Freq., and about 2mm oof (either up or down)

The item is 12.5mm in height. I set the EZCAD at 14.5 height. Set the line space to .01, Hatch Angle 45 and tried also 135, Speed 225, Power 19 and frequency 80.

Results were the same, barely any effect. red laser moves across at an angle... and can barely, barely see any sort of a fine spark.

I also increased up the power to 100%, reduced speed and also tried 20Khz. No joy.

I am seeing 2 very small dots where when hit with the laser i see a little brightness, but that's it. The 2 tiny dots may just be anomalies in the metal. Customer tells me they have annealed Tungum samples in their shop.

I do not know if its the same as what I have or if mine has been coated with something.

I believe this material is non-ferrous and as such is not annealing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNS_C69100

-John

[John Kleiber]

I don't think that it will work at giving you a dark mark anneal, your white/light mark is probably best you'll achieve. But if this is a potentially good job, contact the company, I'll bet their technical folks can tell you quick.
http://tungum.co.uk/contact/

Thanks John... I emailed them just now.

-John

[John Kleiber]

According to FOBA laser: "Annealing marking is when an oxide layer is created on ferrous metals (iron, steel, high-grade steel) and titanium through localized heating"

Never heard of Tungum until today, and the best info I found was from a 1935 article: https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1935/1935%20-%201510.PDF

excerpt:

Sounds a little too close to metals that don't anneal so well...?

Kev, I am thinking the same thing after reading the first paragraph here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNS_C69100, non-ferrous will simply not anneal.

[Gary Hair]

The item is 12.5mm in height. I set the EZCAD at 14.5 height. Set the line space to .01, Hatch Angle 45 and tried also 135, Speed 225, Power 19 and frequency 80.

Results were the same, barely any effect. red laser moves across at an angle... and can barely, barely see any sort of a fine spark.

I also increased up the power to 100%, reduced speed and also tried 20Khz. No joy.

I am seeing 2 very small dots where when hit with the laser i see a little brightness, but that's it. The 2 tiny dots may just be anomalies in the metal. Customer tells me they have annealed Tungum samples in their shop.

I do not know if its the same as what I have or if mine has been coated with something.

I believe this material is non-ferrous and as such is not annealing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNS_C69100

-John

Try those settings on stainless, they should work fine. 100 power is way too much, you only want to heat the surface of the material enough to create the oxide layer, not ablate the material.

[John Kleiber]

I got an email reply back from Tungum LTD from across the pond regarding laser marking Tungum. They wrote a pretty lengthy reply back.

Long email short, "Tungum is a copper alloy and we understand that generally copper alloys are difficult to laser mark and results can be poor. Also marking copper alloys can affect the laser machine due to the higher power required and reflection from copper."

So based on that I am going to set the Tungum to the side for now. When the customer comes to pick up his stainless steel tag order, I will see if he can bring the Tungum he says was annealed by another vendor.

-John