How strong fiber laser for marking stainless steel 400x400 ?

[Martin Safranek]

Hi all,
please can you help me answer to question how strong should be fiber laser for marking stainless steel 400x400mm or 300x300mm ? Mopa or Qswitched ? Any practical experience with longer lens?

Thank you for hints.

Martin

[Bill George]

Your 30 watt fiber machine won't do it?

[Martin Safranek]

I didn't tried so long lens because I expect that 30w is too low power.... Do you have experience with 30w and long lens?
Thx

[Bill George]

I didn't tried so long lens because I expect that 30w is too low power.... Do you have experience with 30w and long lens?
Thx

My long lens gives a 7.9 x 7.9 inch field and I can mark stainless, Lens cost is like $100 from Cloudray, 50 watt laser galvo fiber is $5k.

[Kev Williams]

There are several ways to "mark" stainless with a fiber.

One way is to 'scuff' the surface with the laser using around a .05mm cross hatch, engraved using a low frequency, reasonably fast and 40% or less power, which results in a 'bright' sandblasted-looking mark. Vary speed and power settings to experiment.

Another is the 'brute force' method, using a very tight single (not cross) hatch like .01mm, high power and lower speed. Higher frequencies sometimes work better...

Yet another is the 'annealing' method, very slow but works well. My favorite settings for annealing is a single hatch, very tight at .002mm, running at 200-300 speed, about 30% power and frequency set at 70 or higher. This method causes the carbon at the surface of the metal to darken, with little or no actual engraving. Slight adjustments, in raising power and/or lowering frequency can add (or subtract) darkness, and the amount of actual engraving performed. Very slow but effective, but beware, as it is truly amazing how much heat a slow-moving 30 watt laser beam running at only 30% power can generate, which can cause the metal to warp, sometimes quite a bit...

[Bill George]

My long lens gives a 7.9 x 7.9 inch field and I can mark stainless, Lens cost is like $100 from Cloudray, 50 watt laser galvo fiber is $5k.

Forgot to say mine is a 30 watt machine. I think what your looking for is will a 30 watt using a 200 or 300 mm work area mark stainless and my answer is it works for me and least at the 200x200 mm work area.

[Martin Safranek]

I'm decided order 80w mopa it should be strong enough for anealing.... I have q switched and mopa give me more option for plastic engraving.... Thanks to all for sharing experience...

Martin

[Kev Williams]

Right now I'm 'annealing' some medical parts, and afterward
I need to deep engrave a stainless ID plate that needs red paint fill.

Vastly different methods to do each, I'll try to shoot some video and pics--