Radian Laser Systems

Has anyone heard anything on Radian Laser Systems one way or the other? I'm specifically looking at a galvo CO2 or Fiber for doing powder coated tumblers at volume. I'm not very familiar with the galvo machines, but they claim their "3D galvo" can adjust the focus on-the-fly so that you can engrave a wider design on a tumbler without a rotary. It seems interesting if it works as well as they say. I have yet to venture into the fiber world. I've only used a Trotec Speedy 300 with a rotary. Is a fiber better than CO2 for powder coated stuff? Thank you in advance for the information.

I know nothing of Radian, but I know this much about engraving around radius's; the farther down a radius you engrave, the engraving 'stretches', or gets longer, because more surface is exposed the more the surface angle increases from dead flat. Therefore, the graphic you're sending to the laser must be adjusted to compensate for the stretch. Not sure how to explain this as I'm kinda dumb with the terminology ;) - but to do this, the graphic must be uniformly compressed from the middle outward the same percentage as the amount of increase surface area gained going down the radius... clear as mud, sorry!

I'll try a pic- I cermark engrave SS tubes, 4 and 5 lines of text lengthwise, and to not use the rotary I manually compress the lines of text, like shown:
Attachment 412792
--when engraving this way I've found that 2/3 the actual diameter is about the 'radial engraving limit', so I drew this as such. You can see I've compressed the height of lines 2 and 4 somewhat, and lines 1 and 5 quite a bit, to compensate for the radius. My LS900 can be programmed to refocus different colors, so in this case, black would engrave, then the table would raise a set distance for the blue, then raise more for green. If the compression is correct (this is a quick hand draw, but would be close!) all 5 lines of engraving would match each other...

I'm mentioning all this because, while it's relatively easy to manually compress individual lines of text, it's much harder to maniuplate a one-piece graphic or logo to compress the top/bottom while not compressing the center, and to do it uniformly. IF the software that runs the Radian you're looking can do this, in conjunction with radial auto-focusing, that would be a great piece of machinery to have!

But if it doesn't have that capability, then you'll need to find a program that can manipulate 'radial perspective' output (or whatever it's actually called!)... My advice, find out!

Good luck!

Thanks for the info Kev. I do understand what you are saying. From what the Radian rep was saying, it seemed like the software did this for you. We would be doing all graphics, so like you had mentioned, it would be difficult to skew those. I'm going to reach out to him to see if they have any machines close that I can go check out. Frankly, I don't think I would believe that it would work unless I saw it in person.

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Originally Posted by Grant Carson

Has anyone heard anything on Radian Laser Systems one way or the other? I'm specifically looking at a galvo CO2 or Fiber for doing powder coated tumblers at volume. I'm not very familiar with the galvo machines, but they claim their "3D galvo" can adjust the focus on-the-fly so that you can engrave a wider design on a tumbler without a rotary. It seems interesting if it works as well as they say. I have yet to venture into the fiber world. I've only used a Trotec Speedy 300 with a rotary. Is a fiber better than CO2 for powder coated stuff? Thank you in advance for the information.

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I've got a Radian 3D Fiber, and have spent quite a bit of time talking to Tom the CEO in person at a couple of different shows and he's a good guy. While I have done some 3D work with mine, I admit I've only played around a little bit with the 3D function on powder coated stuff. 3D isn't specific to Radian, it's available from others as well. What I have used it for, it has worked very well though, and I've been happy with my purchase so far. The only thing is that the software it uses isn't direct EZCad, which is both good and bad. Most of the advice you will get from people in the fiber world is based on EZCad, so you need to find the equivalent settings in their software, but most everything I've found so far matches across pretty well.

I have a 3D Radian, it's a 60 Watt MOPA. I was definitely skeptical of the claim that the machine would engrave around a curve without distortion, but after a year of using it I can honestly say it's true and great!

When you load your image, you need to use the 3D portion of the software. Simply select the shape you're engraving, and then enter the diameter and the software adjusts the image to fit and wrap properly. You can engrave up to 55 degrees off center.

I just ran some stainless steel cups and they ran at 2:07 for a nice black anneal. Not having to spin the cups and using a galvo is a game changer in my opinion.

Are you only doing powder coated, or stainless as well? If strictly powder coated I would lean to their co2 model with the disc rotary and drinkware nest. You can set up 10 cups and go do other work then come back later and flip another 10.

Feel free to message me if you have any other questions. I've definitely loved my unit, and even have posted articles on how to use it through A&E Magazine.

Good luck!

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Originally Posted by Steve Utick

I've got a Radian 3D Fiber, and have spent quite a bit of time talking to Tom the CEO in person at a couple of different shows and he's a good guy. While I have done some 3D work with mine, I admit I've only played around a little bit with the 3D function on powder coated stuff. 3D isn't specific to Radian, it's available from others as well. What I have used it for, it has worked very well though, and I've been happy with my purchase so far. The only thing is that the software it uses isn't direct EZCad, which is both good and bad. Most of the advice you will get from people in the fiber world is based on EZCad, so you need to find the equivalent settings in their software, but most everything I've found so far matches across pretty well.

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Thanks for the input Steve. A colleague of mine had talked with Tom at a show as well and said he seems like a genuine guy that's willing to help. It's invaluable to have that kind of support coming from the top of the company.

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Originally Posted by Braden Todd

I have a 3D Radian, it's a 60 Watt MOPA. I was definitely skeptical of the claim that the machine would engrave around a curve without distortion, but after a year of using it I can honestly say it's true and great!

When you load your image, you need to use the 3D portion of the software. Simply select the shape you're engraving, and then enter the diameter and the software adjusts the image to fit and wrap properly. You can engrave up to 55 degrees off center.

I just ran some stainless steel cups and they ran at 2:07 for a nice black anneal. Not having to spin the cups and using a galvo is a game changer in my opinion.

Are you only doing powder coated, or stainless as well? If strictly powder coated I would lean to their co2 model with the disc rotary and drinkware nest. You can set up 10 cups and go do other work then come back later and flip another 10.

Feel free to message me if you have any other questions. I've definitely loved my unit, and even have posted articles on how to use it through A&E Magazine.

Good luck!

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Thanks for the response Braden. We're going to stick with powder coated stuff for right now. We have zero experience with fiber and unfortunately, we don't have much time to learn with this product line. We were actually looking at that disc rotary for drinkware. It looks like the perfect setup for what we need. I will certainly reach out to you once I read through your articles (already found them) and gather some specific questions.

Sounds good!

The disc rotary is pretty great! I think a co2 and the disk rotary would work very well for the powder coat, pending the laser wattage it should burn through them very fast. Once I am done with my other laser I plan on adding the Radian co2 and drinkware nest combo, or if we pick up and need more machines sooner that is the planned route for us.

Let me know if you have any questions!