Galvo on a gantry?

[Jay Selway]

So, galvo lasers are crazy fast, but the work area is small. Gantry lasers give you big work areas, but they are slow.

Why hasn't anyone ever put a galvo laser on a gantry. You'd get the speed of a galvo, and the larger work area of a gantry.

I found one company that does it, but they are a Chinese laser company with a super sketchy website. I did, however, find this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWleLIfKrbg

[Andrew Holloway]

Trotec make them:
http://www.trotec-marking.com/en-AU/...rker-1300.aspx

[Dave Sheldrake]

Been done a few times, either on moving beds of moving gantry machines. I had a Vytek with a moving bed for a while. Expensive for what they are though

[Scott Challoner]

I'm trying to figure out a way right now. I'm getting a lot of metal work that would be more suited to a gantry system, like 20" x 34" stainless plates that need marks in several locations. Even with a 250mm lens I have to do a lot of manual moving around. I've though about getting a CNC router bed and mounting my scan head to it. It would probably be better to have the table move rather than the laser though. I don't want to flex the fiber too much. I may mount the scan head on a rail so I can at least manually move it back and forth though. That would help a lot with some of the larger jobs I've been getting.

[Kev Williams]

I've already given this some thought myself...

An old New Hermes 5000XT with a moving Y-axis table would be perfect for this - and I have 2 of them, AND a new fiber laser on the way...

[Ross Moshinsky]

I'd say without a lot of control, it would be very difficult to make a system which would allow seamless engraving. If you're looking to put lines of text on different parts of panels (or something like that) I'd imagine it wouldn't be all that difficult to hack something together.

[Kev Williams]

This is a 32" x 68" plate done on a 25" x 19" machine...
I wouldn't know "seamless" if it bit me!

bigalum.jpgDSC03917 (Custom) (2).JPG

--but this same machine could move a part and/or the laser without any re-positioning of the part- while not a 'seamless' transition, alignment of what's been engraved and what's yet to be engraved would be much easier than by moving the part itself, especially odd shaped parts...

[Jay Selway]

I was thinking that it would make sense to have a co2 gantry / galvo, but yeah it makes more sense to have the bed move. If anyone knows of a system that does this, let me know.

[Ross Moshinsky]

This is a 32" x 68" plate done on a 25" x 19" machine...
I wouldn't know "seamless" if it bit me!

bigalum.jpgDSC03917 (Custom) (2).JPG

--but this same machine could move a part and/or the laser without any re-positioning of the part- while not a 'seamless' transition, alignment of what's been engraved and what's yet to be engraved would be much easier than by moving the part itself, especially odd shaped parts...

Although that's great work, it's not what I'm talking about. Let's say you have a seamless pattern going across 12"x24" and the galvo head can engrave 6x6 space. Getting it so there is no beam overlap when the head moves will be tricky to say the least. Not only do you have to worry about overlap causing inconsistent depths, you also have to worry about the lines lining up "perfectly".

Your project would be "easy" by comparison because the head would move, engrave one letter, move, engrave one letter, move, ect ect ect.

[Dave Sheldrake]

I was thinking that it would make sense to have a co2 gantry / galvo, but yeah it makes more sense to have the bed move. If anyone knows of a system that does this, let me know.

Vytek make them, I had a big fibre source on one...expect to pay serious industrial money though Kern ++++ prices)

[Ross Moshinsky]

Making a CNC machine is relatively easy and cheap. There are many motion systems out there that don't cost much. Getting a moving table together and having a galvo head floating above it will take some work, but it's far from an engineering nightmare. Going on CNCZone you'll find a lot of info on doing this type of work.

The issue is the time involved in figuring it all out. Even with all the info out there, I'd be surprised if you didn't sink 200+ hours into the project. On top of that, the real challenge is getting it to function "perfectly". Again, if you're just looking to throw a control panel on a table and engrave a few lines of text in different locations, you're probably not going to be too challenged. If you want to do seamless engraving over larger areas than the lens allows, you're in for a challenge.