Trays for holding product and producing consistent results

[Bryan Cowan]

Our Epilog FiberMark 20W system is doing exactly what we expected it to do; consistently producing excellent results on marking various products of a range of metals (aluminum, brass, steel, stainless steel, etc.)

However, a lot of time is spent loading piece by piece onto the bed of the laser. Some instances, we can fit 200 pieces. Doing this one by one often takes a great deal of time to line up and orient correctly.

I would like to be able to pre-load trays of our product when another tray of product is being lasered. However, these trays do not exist. They would be a custom job, and quite a few of them would be needed (I couldn't even guess how many at this point).

Do other people use trays? If so, what type of material are they? How were they made? These trays need to be very durable (withstand 50+ pounds), and not be afraid of a little machine oil along the way.

Thanks :D

[Brian Robison]

Bryan,
I think most of us use laser to make any kind of fixturing. It pretty much eliminates any alignment issues.
Lots of acrylic and wood.

[Bryan Cowan]

Only wish our laser could do that or if we had a CO2 laser.

We may be in the market for these trays relatively soon, so if anyone here wants some extra work, perhaps we can work something out :)

[Lee DeRaud]

Easiest way is probably to just cut a grid of holes the shape of the parts in 1/8" MDF and glue the result onto a backer of 1/4" MDF. Total cost maybe 50 cents per "tray".

[Bryan Cowan]

Yea, that is what I was thinking. A thin "cookie sheet" layer glued/pinned on top of a thicker piece for that added durability.

Like I stated above, if anyone is interested in doing this, let me know and we can work out the details.

[Bryan Cowan]

Our table is 24" x 12".

I will do all the Corel work, all I would need from anyone willing to do this is the time and materials.

[Wil Lambert]

Our table is 24" x 12".

I will do all the Corel work, all I would need from anyone willing to do this is the time and materials.

Bryan,

Contact me. I would be interested in making them for you. My emails is in my profile.

Wil

[Brian Robison]

The Fiber laser doesn't vector cut?

[Bryan Cowan]

Not sure where I read this or even if it's a direct quote, but I believe the FiberMark's capability of vector cutting "has been disabled."

It'll vector engrave, but it will not cut.

[Roy Brewer]

The Fiber laser doesn't vector cut?
All,

The FiberMark rasters and vectors just like other Epilog systems. However, the wavelength of a beam produced in the fiber source (same as YAG & YVO4) is such that it will cut through very few substrates.

The FiberMark is basically for metal marking; both the raster and vector modes do a very good job of marking (as I think Bryan has confirmed).

[Bryan Cowan]

The FiberMark is basically for metal marking; both the raster and vector modes do a very good job of marking (as I think Bryan has confirmed).

Sure does. Keeps me impressed every day.

[Bill Cunningham]

What will the Fibermark do on glass? The reason I ask, is I did a bunch of glass pieces for a company that only had a fibermark machine.. I was under the impression that it would raster glass? Now I'm not complaining about getting the work, :D Just surprized ..

[Roy Brewer]

What will the Fibermark do on glass? Bill,

No. The YAG wavelength of the FiberMark is not absorbed by the surface of the glass, goes right through it.

[Bill Cunningham]

Well there ya go... I learned something new again today.. Thanks Roy!