I have a 30w fiber laser that my wife and i bought from a former employer of hers. He sold it shortly after purchasing it because he did not find the EzCad program to be an easy addition for his employees that were currently using Corel based software. To my understanding he purchased the laser from G. Weike. It has been a pretty good learning curve for me from figuring out how to convert logos to a file that could be read by EzCad (DXF) and then hatch filled for a nice looking engraving, to learning how to use the rotary attachment and split mark settings to engrave text on cylindrical objects (but no luck with logos for the issue of the lines showing up as stepper motor rotates). Ive read here that im not the only person with that problem. My issue that I bring to the table today is that of engraving on a contoured surface. I am starting to do some work for a friend that wants to incorporate laser engraving into the motorcycle industry. He is starting his own shop so I am engraving his logo onto some different parts as sample pieces. The piece I am working with now is a derby cover.
WTSS first run.jpg(not sure why picture is inserting upside down).
When I engraved this first test I engraved in continuous mode and adjusted my focal height while it was engraving just to get the image on the piece and go from there. It did not turn out horrible but it is not consistent all the way across as I would like, and more detailed logos at this size would show more blemishes from doing it this way. Then I went on to break up my engraving space in to focal sections that I found to be good for this piece with the contour that is has. As you can see by the circular sections around the logo. My idea here was to break apart the logo in to these four sections and attempt to engrave them one section at a time while adjusting the laser head to the appropriate focal height in between sections (Not sure if this would work either). The problem that I ran in to here was after importing the sections of the logo in to EzCad they would not hatch properly since the lines in the logo were broke apart, even after regrouping the sections back into a single object it still would not recognize the lines as being conjoined. That leads me to my question about lenses, I do not know much about them but I am willing to learn.
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This is what I am working with for a contour. There is about a 6mm drop from the center point to each edge of the engraving. Which is right on point with my over all change in focal height when I created the circular sections on the cover. I have read that there are lenses that can increase the over all engraving area. My question is will the lenses also increase the depth of field or focal depth that you can engrave within the central portion of the engravable area. So if I got a lens that could increase the engravable area to lets say 11" square then is it possible that within the 4.75" that this logo takes up could it handle a drop of 6mm in contour?
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Here are images of the lens that I have now, like I said I don't know a whole lot about lenses and how the work so any advice and tips are much appreciated.