Curious if anyone can tell: fiber or yag?

[Kev Williams]

I'm engraving some aluminum that's already been laser engraved, it's about .006-.008 deep. Pretty sure either a fiber or yag had to do this, just curious is anyone can tell me which type did, and how you can tell?

[greg lindsey]

Kev, I have a fiber that can do that.

[Gary Hair]

If you count the vertical lines in the hatching and divide by the horizontal lines, you get 142 - that means it was fiber.

[Dave Sheldrake]

Likely a fiber but the differences between work on a fiber and a good quality YAG are too small to notice, same wavelength (unless mode locked as YAG are 1080, fiber are 1064)

I have both and either would do it.

cheers

Dave

[Kev Williams]

Good to know, thanks!

Been considering a fiber laser, wasn't sure a fiber was good for that deep. Years ago I sent out some anodized sample pieces to be engraved with a galvo yag, what I was after was similar to the picture, a full-cut engraving... what I got was a narrow, shallow vectored outline of everything. Also (years ago) I asked a reputable laser mfr for some fiber lasered samples of engraved metals. Not one of the samples I received had any more than superficial engraving, zero depth. They were more "look at the colors we can get" samples. Because of those samples, I've just sufficed using my trusty C02's...

What kind of power, and what kind of depth, if any, can be had when doing stainless with a fiber?

[Dave Sheldrake]

To get good depth on a Fiber into aluminium needs power...LOTS of power, think 100 watt raw as an entry point with 400 to 600 raw being useful. You can in effect get depth by running the job 50+ times on a smaller machine but that kind of negates the benefits of having something like a Galvo in the first place. Watch out for quotes on machines by pulse power, go by resonator power.

I sold my big fiber, it just didn't get the use I had planned on still got a couple of baby fibers but those tend to sit idle unless I'm bored and want to make nameplates or such like. (no gun engraving over here and not many guns in public hands to engrave on)

cheers

Dave

[matthew knott]

I would guess fibre as theres a fair bit of recasting going on which would mean running a yag very slow, fibres still making peak powers much higher frequencies. But its just an educated guess

[Dan Hintz]

If you count the vertical lines in the hatching and divide by the horizontal lines, you get 142 - that means it was fiber.

I have to ask... huh?

[Gary Hair]

I'm surprised that no one asked about this before now, not too surprised it was you... if it smells like b.s., it usually is - 'nuff said.

[Dan Hintz]

I'm surprised that no one asked about this before now, not too surprised it was you... if it smells like b.s., it usually is - 'nuff said.

I would have asked sooner, but I was out of the country