Laser Garment Marking

[Richard Rumancik]

Recently someone was selling a "co2 laser garment marking system" on eBay. I contacted the seller for more info but got no response. Not sure if it is legit or not. The seller said it was a "Synrad" machine but perhaps they meant it had a Synrad laser. It had a small area for engraving fabric (like marking of pockets of bluejeans). Not sure of the power - maybe 10 watts?

(BTW, in case some members were not aware, the co2 laser will lighten blue jean material to a whitish color. The trick is how much power to apply without excessively damaging the fibres of the fabric. Try an experiment if interested.)

My question is - does anybody know which company actually made this machine? It is a very small tabletop machine with an enclosed area maybe 8" x 8" to lay the fabric.

If you want to see a pic, you have to search on "LASER GARMENT MARKING" but check "completed items" as the last one was sold. But I have seen a few come up over time.

[Dave Jones]

I believe it is a division or subsidiary of Synrad :

http://www.ricochetlasers.com/

(Synrad corporate headquarters is at the same address as Ricochet Lasers)

[Joe Pelonio]

They are just up the road about 20 miles from here. Lot of money for a little 10 watt laser though. I've done denim and polarfleece, the only trick is getting the area to be engraved flat on a bulky item of clothing. You do have to be careful not to use too much power and ruin the person's clothes. Not the kind of jobs I look for.

[Dave Jones]

I suspect part of the reason for the cost is it's designed as a turnkey system for the untrained user in a mall or clothing shop. From the pic I would guess it's a galvo system.

[Keith Outten]

They are just up the road about 20 miles from here. Lot of money for a little 10 watt laser though. I've done denim and polarfleece, the only trick is getting the area to be engraved flat on a bulky item of clothing. You do have to be careful not to use too much power and ruin the person's clothes. Not the kind of jobs I look for.

Joe,

I have also tried laser engraving denim, the results were mixed but the technique is really slick if the denim is really dark for contrast. I purchased some denim bags from WalMart and practiced on them, they were cheap enough. I also did some damage experimenting with speed and power settings. I never washed any of my test pieces to see how many wash cycles they would withstand, it seems to weaken the fabric to much.

[Joe Pelonio]

It makes a lot more sense to be marking denim non-clothing items like wallets and purses, since they don't get washed. I have not had any complaints about the few jeans that I did. One I did was both sides of the back, just below the pockets. Hopefully that didn't weaken the fabric or that young lady would be showing off her cheeks. :eek:

[Rodne Gold]

The laser just leaches the indigo dye out of the denim , doesnt affect the fabric and the mark gets whiter with each wash , it ages like the jeans and doesnt weaken the fabric where the engraving is , at the very worst , it should just remove the fibre fluff.
Doesnt work on black tho.
HOWEVER there is a patent on marking jeans with a laser - believe it or not , check out engravingetc - prolly a search will find the discussion on it.
You can laser at VERY high speeds and low power and very low dpi (200 or less) as the weave of the denim wont really give any advantage to higher resolution. Using too much power results in a mark that is not white enough , much like anodised ally.

[Richard Rumancik]

Thanks Dave for the link to the Genie laser. This was what I saw.

(Joe, I know what you are saying about ruining someone's clothing but it seems to me that some members are engraving on some pretty expensive items. I tend to lean in your direction - I would also pass on the guy who wants me to mark a name on a single $100 pen when I can't test one.) But some people make good money by taking a bit of risk.

Getting back to fabrics - there was an article in Industrial Laser Solutions recently about fabric marking in China - seems there is a "cottage industry" there converting bolts of denim with 100 watt lasers. They are doing elaborate graphics, photos, and even combinations of vector cutting and marking (sort or a "lace" look).

If you are interested you can see the article at
www.industrial-lasers.com (http://www.industrial-lasers.com)

Sorry but you have to register first to see it but it may be worthwhile.
Will post a separate item on this magazine so others may see.

Search using keywords "mark" and "China" and you will find it.

[Barbara Buhse]

One I did was both sides of the back, just below the pockets. Hopefully that didn't weaken the fabric or that young lady would be showing off her cheeks. :eek:

Joe,
please tell me you didn't mark the jeans with anything catchy sayings like "juicy" or such!
There's way too much of that lately!:)

Barbara

[Joe Pelonio]

Joe,
please tell me you didn't mark the jeans with anything catchy sayings like "juicy" or such!
There's way too much of that lately!:)

Barbara
Trying to remember, there was a spider on a web, a pair of cherries,
and some floral stuff. No text except for a wallet (name).

[John Lee]

Recently someone was selling a "co2 laser garment marking system" on eBay. I contacted the seller for more info but got no response. Not sure if it is legit or not. The seller said it was a "Synrad" machine but perhaps they meant it had a Synrad laser. It had a small area for engraving fabric (like marking of pockets of bluejeans). Not sure of the power - maybe 10 watts?

(BTW, in case some members were not aware, the co2 laser will lighten blue jean material to a whitish color. The trick is how much power to apply without excessively damaging the fibres of the fabric. Try an experiment if interested.)

My question is - does anybody know which company actually made this machine? It is a very small tabletop machine with an enclosed area maybe 8" x 8" to lay the fabric.

If you want to see a pic, you have to search on "LASER GARMENT MARKING" but check "completed items" as the last one was sold. But I have seen a few come up over time.

Richard,it seems that we have produced such machine,would you give me a picture or data sheet about it?tianjunlaser@gmail.com

[Richard Rumancik]

See Dave's post above. He found it for me . . .

It is at

http://www.ricochetlasers.com/

[John Lee]

well,this machine is really smart.
but the price...
under $10,000?cost too much~~~

[Richard DiMaggio]

I have one of these machines. I purchased it back in 2006 with the intent of installing it in a kiosk at the local mall... well, that didn't work out. Now, a few years down the road, the battery for the real time clock inside this system crapped out and now the software won't run. I tried to get support from Synrad but the support branch won;t even admit to knowing anything about Ricochet. They say they never heard of them!! There has to be a way to get around their software to reset the RTC. I replaced the battery/oscillator on the control card and the fail message went away and is not replaced with RTC needs to be set. Is there anyone out here that knows how to reset the clock in this Genie? Like Obewan, you are my only hope. I can't imagine that you would have to return a 50 pound machine to get the clock set....has to be a way to do it remotely...

[Bill George]

First finding a post from 2006 and posting on it more that likely will not get you help. Try Google.