PDA

View Full Version : Marking clear anodized Al



Michael McDuffie
04-16-2006, 7:33 PM
A customer passed this link on to me and I thought I'd pass it on to the folks here. Synrad (http://www.synrad.com/search_apps/application_briefs/13-2.htm) explains how to laser clear anodized aluminum with a CO2 laser.

Looks cool as I've never had luck with this before.

Michael

Robert Bosworth
04-17-2006, 12:44 PM
This would be fairly difficult to do on the systems that we all use on this board. That was done with a co2 marker -- and a single-line font. You may be able to achive these results in a vector mode, but it is very difficult still to output a single line font for vector. At least I've never succeeded since it is outside of the specs required for TTF and PS fonts.

Robert Bosworth
www.usedlasers.com

Lee DeRaud
04-17-2006, 12:57 PM
This would be fairly difficult to do on the systems that we all use on this board. That was done with a co2 marker -- and a single-line font. You may be able to achive these results in a vector mode, but it is very difficult still to output a single line font for vector. At least I've never succeeded since it is outside of the specs required for TTF and PS fonts.

Robert Bosworth
www.usedlasers.com (http://www.usedlasers.com)
Hmm...if you have text in Corel, apply 'Convert to Curves', set outline to 'hairline' and fill to 'none', isn't that effectively a "single line font"?

Although for the life of me, I don't see why raster mode won't work: it's just a question of finding the right combination of power and burn duration (AKA speed).

Joe Pelonio
04-17-2006, 1:38 PM
Hmm...if you have text in Corel, apply 'Convert to Curves', set outline to 'hairline' and fill to 'none', isn't that effectively a "single line font"?

Lee, that's going to result in the outline of the letters, What he's looking for is single line letters as if drawn with a thin pen. I don't know of any fonts for that other than CAD and rotary engraving system fonts, that I suppose could be exported to Corel.

Lee DeRaud
04-17-2006, 2:35 PM
Lee, that's going to result in the outline of the letters, What he's looking for is single line letters as if drawn with a thin pen. I don't know of any fonts for that other than CAD and rotary engraving system fonts, that I suppose could be exported to Corel.Ok, I see that. But I have to ask: what's so magical about single-line fonts with respect to this marking method?

Robert Bosworth
04-17-2006, 2:53 PM
The problem is that ttf and postscript fonts by definition are closed objects. It's just like in CorelDRAW you can not fill a curve that has an open node (for obvious reasons). If fonts were able to contain open areas, then they would be impossible to fill.

There are some single-line cad fonts, but these are proprietary fonts that can not be used within Corel. I have only seen them used with proprietary software/machines.

I've just never been succesful rastering on clear anodized pieces. Of course -- I have never been succesful vectoring either. I was mostly just trying to point out that these pieces were run on a co2 marking system with a galvo head.

Jerry Allen
04-17-2006, 4:47 PM
Brewed special for youse guys.
Try the attached .cdr.

(for those that don't know, you must change the file extension to .cdr while or after downloading)

Whoops, was X3, changed it to v10.

Michael McDuffie
04-17-2006, 5:06 PM
After I posted, I checked out the rest of the site and realized it was produced by a galvo system.

We used to serialize CD-Roms with a galvo system. Watching that one day got me to thinking a guy could make money with one of those. $59,580 in payments and $9000 in receipts says I was wrong. Sigh.

Michael