Galvo vs. Gantry

[Jay Selway]

Anybody use galvo lasers? For most of us that engrave relatively small format items, I'm surprised more don't use Galvo lasers. Obviously, their speed is far superior to a gantry based laser, but I wonder if the engrave/marking is of the same quality.

I've been looking at large format systems (namely Kern and Vy-Tek) and recently came across a company that uses a galvo laser on a gantry to capitalize on the speed of galvo, but the area of coverage of a gantry.

Just curious about everyone's thoughts.

[Ross Moshinsky]

I've never operated a galvo but here is what I know the downsides of running one.

1. Table size.
2. Setup (from what I know, you don't throw something in the top corner and press run).
3. Adjustment for various material thickness.
4. Cutting.
5. Price.

Obviously there are plenty of benefits as well, but those downsides are why people stick with table top machines.

[Joe Hillmann]

Most galvo machines have the ability to control an x,y table and the ability to break the design up into tiles so it engraves a spot, the table moves and it engraves the next spot and so on.

Although the software in mine at least is nowhere near as easy to use as on a co2 laser. And aligning is difficult do do precisely for a one of item.

And your speed is limited by your power. Even if it can go super fast if it doesn't have enough power you may have to slow it down.

And they don't work well for cutting because the farther from the center you get the more angled the beam becomes.

[Jay Selway]

Check this out Joe. It's a galvo on a gantry. Sort of the best of both worlds... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWleLIfKrbg

[Dan Hintz]

Check this out Joe. It's a galvo on a gantry. Sort of the best of both worlds... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWleLIfKrbg

There's no reason that thing shouldn't do its multiple passes when it's in the proper position rather than doing one pass, leaving for something else, then coming back to do another pass. That slows down the entire process big time. I'd also like to see the quality of the tiling between sections... accuracy and repeatability are tantamount when doing large pieces, especially if you are marking a section multiple times with movement between each pass.

[Jay Selway]

There's no reason that thing shouldn't do its multiple passes when it's in the proper position rather than doing one pass, leaving for something else, then coming back to do another pass. That slows down the entire process big time. I'd also like to see the quality of the tiling between sections... accuracy and repeatability are tantamount when doing large pieces, especially if you are marking a section multiple times with movement between each pass.

Yeah, me too. I just thought the idea of putting a galvo on a gantry was pretty cool. Speed is money in this business, so anything that we can do to speed up production I'm all for. I've never seen a machine like this in person, but I wonder if anyone from Trotec, Epilog, or Kern have ever tried making a machine like this...

[Jack Clague]

If your producing 1000+ identical items and need to get them marked the same day before shipping or packaging the Galvo is the way to go, make a Jig, setup the software and markings and have someone fill the jib, put it in, press a button, wait, remove jig, repeat

I looked into them a fair bit and it seems custom or regularly changing work does not suit the smaller galvo machines due to setup time per Job, but once setup they are monumentally faster and doing that Job than a flying optic machine

[Joe Hillmann]

Check this out Joe. It's a galvo on a gantry. Sort of the best of both worlds... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWleLIfKrbg

Or the worst.
All the expense of a galvo. And if it can cut, only the speed of a gantry. And probably the software of a galvo but worse because it has to tile it as well.

I'm joking... Kind of.

For jobs like what it is shown doing it is probably a great machine. It is also probably great for running the same part without customization again and again. I'm just looking at it from the point of view of my shop and it wouldn't be the best machine for me, Although I wouldn't turn it down if it was given to me.