laser etching dichroic glass

[Craig Hellemond]

I hope this isn't to off topic for this forum, but has anyone one here used a laser engraver to etch dichroic glass?

[Mike Null]

I haven't done it but was told that it has the same characteristics as plate glass. That would say it can the laser etched. My source was Delphi. dichroic glass is a coated glass.

[Craig Hellemond]

Thanks. I will contact Delphi

[Chuck Howerton]

I have etched dichroic glass with my Epilog Helix 75 and it works great. A word of warning though; each color of coating has a different thickness, so you have to experiment for each one. Shortly after etching the dichroic glass, my laser went bad, After doing a lot of calling back and forth to Epilog (who were as helpful as they could be from 1300 miles away) and replacing all of the active elements of the system (laser tube, control board and power supply) the problem still was not solved. As it turned out there were "spots" on the bottom of the lens which could not be removed. My guess is that some of the coating that was blasted off the surface of the dichroic glass redeposited itself on the bottom of the lens. Whether we should have caught this first is moot, the lens was as clean as I could get it so we assumed it was not the lens. I had to remove the lens assembly to find the problem and even then the spots were very small, but, according to Epilog, could still have caused the laser beam to be difused enough to hamper its effectiveness.

Chuck Howerton
Lazaire Precision Products
Sequim, Washington

[Craig Hellemond]

Hi Chuck,

Is there some way to contact you to discuss this topic further?

Thanks

Craig

swg@telus.net