Trotec YouTube Video - making of mopa samples

[Keith Outten]

The production of the different marking samples with a SpeedMarker 700 with a MOPA laser source. Three samples that demonstrate the advantage of the MOPA laser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx0W...MjAxNw&index=1
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[Kev Williams]

Thanks for the link Keith!

I've been interested in what a MOPA can do. Being able to do colors is pretty cool, but to be honest, I didn't' care for the consistency of the plates in the video, it appeared that the power was falling off from top to bottom. And while colors are cool, because of my industrial customer base, I have no use for laser etching in color. What I HAVE a use for is laser ENGRAVING. And I still don't know if a MOPA will engrave better and/or faster than a Q machine

[matthew knott]

We have 4 mopa lasers and 7 q switched , power ranges from 20-70 watts , the mopas are good on some plastics but overall we almost never use the the mopa settings and just use the standard waveform. If you are buying a laser for a one off industrial application , say like apple for marking the backs of phones then mopa can come into its own but for a job shop where you have zero control over the product then it's much reduced. For example the black marking on anodised is slow and is very dependent on the anodise thickness. If it was my money spend the extra money on power if you want to go deep , mopa don't remove material any faster than a q switch laser

[Kev Williams]

Thank you for that info Matt, very good to know! Now I know better where to set my sights...

so- is one of your 70 watter's a Q, and if so, is it's deep engraving speed worth the extra money?

[Jacob John]

We have 4 mopa lasers and 7 q switched , power ranges from 20-70 watts , the mopas are good on some plastics but overall we almost never use the the mopa settings and just use the standard waveform. If you are buying a laser for a one off industrial application , say like apple for marking the backs of phones then mopa can come into its own but for a job shop where you have zero control over the product then it's much reduced. For example the black marking on anodised is slow and is very dependent on the anodise thickness. If it was my money spend the extra money on power if you want to go deep , mopa don't remove material any faster than a q switch laser

So if I'm going for a consistent black marking on stainless steel, what would be your recommendation?

What about silver?