I will be sourcing a new laser in the summer. It's gonna be a 150W gas-assist machine. In my experience with my current 80 watt machine, it's sometimes challenging to etch/engrave soft materials like vinyl and fabric because I have to either diminish the cutting power or increase the speed so much that the quality of the etch suffers. For example, at 25% power and a 300 m/s cut speed yields a poorly-defined edge of the etching. If I increase the speed or reduce the power any more than that, then the quality of the etch is terrible.
Moving up to a 150w machine, I can only imagine that soft materials are going to be even more of a challenge, as even at the lowest workable power settings will blow right through the material. It seems to me that a power-reducing pass through filter/lens would fix this problem -- just flip it into the path of the laser and reduce power by x%. But I don't find anything like this when I search. Is there such a thing?
Thanks,
Bob