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Steve Clarkson
11-05-2008, 8:26 AM
OK, so I was searching the web today for various suppliers, and of course everyone seems to offer laser engraving with their product. Anyway, on atleast two different websites, I read the following:

"Laser Engraving - Imprinting method by which art or lettering is cut into a material by a laser beam that vaporizes the portion exposed through openings in a template."

It almost sounds like sandblasting, where they make a stencil of your logo and just blast it......only with a laser.

What do you think?

Joe Pelonio
11-05-2008, 8:31 AM
That does sound like sandblasting, but I've never heard that before.

I suppose one could use a hand held laser but would need a way to produce metal stencils.

Steve Clarkson
11-05-2008, 8:37 AM
Do you think it could work? I mean, let's assume you had to put a logo on 1000 dogtags......could you make something like an acrylic template to lay over them and then just set your laser to blast away?

Joe Pelonio
11-05-2008, 10:03 AM
it would work but would not be practical, would take longer and cause far more wear on the machine than needed.

With our lasers which engrave by making multiple x-y passes one pixel row at a time that would take forever, much longer than the normal method where it fires only at the image location. (You would be engraving a large black box)

Dee Gallo
11-05-2008, 10:13 AM
"Laser Engraving - Imprinting method by which art or lettering is cut into a material by a laser beam that vaporizes the portion exposed through openings in a template."

This sounds like it was written by someone who does not really understand how a laser works. Sounds more like a screen printing or airbrush setup to me.

If you were doing 1000 dogtags, your "template" is the file you make with the logo, design or names and send through the print command.

If you needed any kind of real template, it would be something to hold the dogtags in place so they line up every time you print a batch. Cardboard, acrylic, wood or even paper would work. I used a magnetic sheet once for a lot of small items.

Scott Shepherd
11-05-2008, 10:14 AM
I think it was written by someone who doesn't know what a laser is.

Shoot Dee, you beat me to it!

Michael Hunter
11-06-2008, 4:30 PM
That's how they make cutouts in greetings cards.
10KW (!!!) lasers and stainless steel stencils that cover the cards but reveal the wanted holes. Runs on a wire conveyor belt to produce cards at enormous speed!

Bill Cunningham
11-06-2008, 10:15 PM
That's how they make cutouts in greetings cards.
10KW (!!!) lasers and stainless steel stencils that cover the cards but reveal the wanted holes. Runs on a wire conveyor belt to produce cards at enormous speed!

Boy!! Watching 'that' run would be a Hallmark Moment...
:D Sorry couldn't resist...

Frank Corker
11-07-2008, 6:07 AM
Boy!! Watching 'that' run would be a Hallmark Moment...
:D Sorry couldn't resist...


You're a card!