Laser tips: Optimise your productivity

Trotec's "Speedy" series of laser engraving machines were designed with purpose: to increase production efficiency. The Speedy laser engravers have a maximum processing speed of 4.2 m/sec. and acceleration of 5g. Due to the machine's closed design, InPack Technology, all of the important components are protected against dirt and dust. As a result maintenance costs are minimal and in turn this translates into an ultra long lifetime for your laser machine and lower operating costs.

Learn more about the Speedy series

Cast acrylic

10 mm, plate size 1000 x 500 mm, 352 units with a height of 50 mm each

Anodised aluminum

Data plate, layout 700 x 420 mm 49 units per 100 x 60 mm

Metals can be marked with a CO₂ laser engraving machine only by using a metal marking solution (a spray or paste), which must be applied to the workpiece prior to processing. Only when the solution is completely dry, can it be processed. During laser processing the the solution will be burned into the material and once processed the excess must be washed off.

Fiber laser machines, for instance from the Speedy flexx series, allow you to directly mark the metal without the need for additional consumables. Productivity increases as preparation and follow-up processes for applying, drying and cleaning of the metal marking solution is no longer necessary. As time is saved, the machine operator can work on other orders to increase the company’s productivity.
The following contrasts two different ways of marking a stainless steel data plate:

Increased productivity of metal marking

A custom created jig or template is an extremely useful and time-saving tool if you have the need to laser engrave multiple parts in one work process. To maximise productivity and output we recommend the jig or template is adjusted to fit the working area of the laser machine.

We will illustrate this by using a ballpoint pen example. It takes just 30 seconds to engrave one ballpoint pen. It takes only 30 minutes to engrave 104 ballpoint pens using one jig on the entire working area. All of the ballpoint pens are engraved in one process step. Time-consuming handling due to placement and removal of the template is no longer an issue.

Discover how easy it is to make a template to fit your workpieces.

Create templates

Depending on your application, vector engraving is sometimes a better method. Edging a plate for example is faster if you score the frame (vector engraving) rather than engraving it (raster engraving). In this way the border line is created as a vector (hairline) in the graphic. When engraving, the vectors are traced, while raster engraving works line by line in x direction. In our example you could save up to twothirds of your work time if you score the edge instead of raster engraving it.

Read more about the difference and settings of raster and vector engraving:

Raster engraving versus vector engraving

In this example we want the metal plate to be laser marked using annealing. Between the individual graphic elements there is a lot of space, which increases the processing time when laser marking or laser engraving. To save time we have split the graphics into several vertical colour zones.

The lower engraving speed required for this process means that aligning the graphics saves you time. In our example, we reduced the processing time by 25% by using optimised graphics.