Tips and tricks to optimize your productivity

The “Speedy” laser engraving machines were developed to increase production efficiency with maximum processing speed up to 4.2 m/sec. and acceleration of 5 g. Due to the machine’s closed design, all of the important components are protected against dirt and dust. This means minimal maintenance costs. This in turn translates into a longer life 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

Anodized 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 in advance. When the solution is completely dry, it will be burned into the material during laser processing. When the laser process is finished, the excess must be washed off.

When using a fiber laser, for instance from the Speedy flexx series the laser marking will appear directly on the metal. Preparation and follow-up processes for applying, drying and cleaning are no longer necessary. In this time 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

Templates are an extremely useful and time-saving tool if you need to laser engrave multiple parts in one work process. You will be most productive if you adjust the templates to fit the working area of the laser machine and thus maximize output.

We will illustrate this by using a ballpoint pen. It takes just 30 seconds to engrave one ballpoint pen. It take only 30 minutes to engrave 104 ballpoint pens using one template 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 2/3 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 our example, we want the metal plate to be marked using annealing techniques. There is a lot of blank space between individual graphic elements. However, because this space is traced during the engraving process, the processing time increases. To avoid this redundant movement and save time, we have divided the graphics into several different vertical color zones.

Due to the lower engraving speed required for this process, aligning the graphics saves time. In our example, we managed to reduce the processing time by 25% thanks to the optimized graphics.