Soliciting Fiber Power Suggestions

[David Somers]

Thanks for the info Gary! Appreciated!!!!!

Dave

[Rodne Gold]

Use lenses as power moderators

Lenses are cheap . either a 50mm x 50mm or 70x70 for when you need speed and ultimate power density for depth

110mm x 110m , little less power density great all rounder

210 x 210 .. excellent for cutting and engraving rowmark , plastics .. superfast


Combine these lenses with a 30w fiber ...., more or less all you need to cover most bases

[Kev Williams]

I'd love one of these--25x25 working area...

http://auto-alt.com/wp-content/uploa...FlexMarker.pdf

--but to be honest, I couldn't use it for more than half the work I do with mine... but I WOULD love to find an "open" galvo fiber similar to mine with 100 watts available..

[Bill George]

Use lenses as power moderators

Lenses are cheap . either a 50mm x 50mm or 70x70 for when you need speed and ultimate power density for depth

110mm x 110m , little less power density great all rounder

210 x 210 .. excellent for cutting and engraving rowmark , plastics .. superfast


Combine these lenses with a 30w fiber ...., more or less all you need to cover most bases

Ok Rodne what is your secret for Rowmark with the Fiber? I have not tried compressed air blowing on the material to blow away the color dust over the white to see if that helps yet.

[Rodne Gold]

Not all the enraving plastics work , here are the ones that do , I do remember that stuff with a white substrate wasnt too good
http://www.tokerbros.co.za/Engraving...ser-engraving/

I forget the exact settings .. I passed my fibre on to one of my employees after I experimented so dont have them on hand

If its not in that pic gallery , it probably cant be fibre engraved as I tried every colour combo engraving lam we had on hand .. I got great results cutting some of the engraving plastics with the fiber laser .. also works real well with that thin laserlites type material

[Bill George]

Not all the enraving plastics work , here are the ones that do , I do remember that stuff with a white substrate wasnt too good
http://www.tokerbros.co.za/Engraving...ser-engraving/

I forget the exact settings .. I passed my fibre on to one of my employees after I experimented so dont have them on hand

If its not in that pic gallery , it probably cant be fibre engraved as I tried every colour combo engraving lam we had on hand .. I got great results cutting some of the engraving plastics with the fiber laser .. also works real well with that thin laserlites type material

I had a customer for who I used LaserMag for tags. I got that to work on my Fiber and it took a lot of trial and error. She had not ordered for months and since I sold my ULS CO2 I told her to find someone else. But she insisted so I got it done on the Fiber.
I also use the aluminum anodized tags from Chewbarkas they look great for name tags.

[Kristian Matz]

If you talking about a moving table, Ray Fine can build it. I discussed with them a small table that uses stepper motors and it was like $600.

Do you know if such a machine exists Gary, or would that be a custom build from someone like Jimani? I'm still doing lots of 20" x 42" stainless panels and they are a real pain. Good money, but a pain. I'm guessing something like this would run in the neighborhood of $60-$70k or more.

[Kev Williams]

Talked to a guy yesterday that said he could take my fiber, mount the scanhead to a 24x24" gantry, set it up with the needed software to drive it all and make sure it works, AND change out my 30w source for a 50w, all for 6 bills... and I keep the 30w source as a spare...

With a moving gantry taking care of the working area I could swap out the 160 lens for a 50--- the way higher power density coupled with a 50w laser-- All for less $$ than a separate 50 watt laser...

this really has my wheels turning--

[Rodne Gold]

I think you might have issues aligning the galvo head engraving and the moving table "tiles"

[Kev Williams]

I was assured it wouldn't be an issue, supposed to be all automatic, but I do agree with you, I've seen how well my rotary lines up stuff!

However, the rotary 'text mark' feature works flawlessly... I figure a gantry could seam text together the same way, and my work is predominately text...

[mike wallis]

Kev,
This sounds interesting. If you don't mind sharing I'd like to inquire with your contact as well. If needed you can PM me.

[Jacob John]

There are two main things that you can do better with a 50 vs 30:
1. Faster in all types of engraving - surface or deep, even staining will be faster.
2. Larger working area - the larger working area you have means you have less power on the outer limits, with a 50 watt you can extend those limits farther and still have plenty of power to get the job done.

If you really want more throughput and you are not needing to work large areas, then you'd be better off with two 30's vs one 50. I'm not sure how much power you would need to run twice as fast as a 30, but it is certainly more than 60, probably more like 80 or 90. For the price of a 90 you could buy 3 or 4 30's.

If you need a larger working area, 175mmx175mm is pretty comfortable for a 30, then you can either choose a 50 (or higher) or a 30 with an X-Y stage. The X-Y stage is probably more versatile and I'm not sure how it would compare to a 50 price wise.

It all comes down to what you want and need. My two 30's are serving me quite well and I don't regret not getting a 50 instead.

So what is the max engraving area for the various wattages? Is it 175mm for 30W? Is there a reference sheet that I could read on this? That would help in determining what i would feel comfortable paying in terms of wattage versus cost.

[Jacob John]

Talked to a guy yesterday that said he could take my fiber, mount the scanhead to a 24x24" gantry, set it up with the needed software to drive it all and make sure it works, AND change out my 30w source for a 50w, all for 6 bills... and I keep the 30w source as a spare...

With a moving gantry taking care of the working area I could swap out the 160 lens for a 50--- the way higher power density coupled with a 50w laser-- All for less $$ than a separate 50 watt laser...

this really has my wheels turning--

FWIW CAMFive claims it can be done. Can't link their eBay ad, but "X-Y TABLE (optional): The adjustable table travels X-Y to be able to engrave in different areas when working with bigger objects, without having to move them, this is a great feature when using the rotary attachment. Not included with this price but available for purchase for $675.00."

If this would work, it would really take fibers a huge step forward.

[Gary Hair]

So what is the max engraving area for the various wattages? Is it 175mm for 30W? Is there a reference sheet that I could read on this? That would help in determining what i would feel comfortable paying in terms of wattage versus cost.

I don't know that anyone really has a definitive answer to that question. For one, it depends entirely on what you are marking and the type of mark. ie. For black anodized aluminum you could get away with a pretty large marking area if all you are doing is bleaching out the color. If, on the other hand, you were deep marking hard tempered steel or hard coat anodized aluminum then you would lose quite a bit of area if you want the mark to be consistent over the entire area.

[Gary Hair]

FWIW CAMFive claims it can be done. Can't link their eBay ad, but "X-Y TABLE (optional): The adjustable table travels X-Y to be able to engrave in different areas when working with bigger objects, without having to move them, this is a great feature when using the rotary attachment. Not included with this price but available for purchase for $675.00."

If this would work, it would really take fibers a huge step forward.

Check jimani - they have this completely resolved and working perfectly. To say the will cost you a small fortune is fairly accurate, but you do get what you pay for - support as well as quality hardware and software. If you have the jobs that require this technology then you'll easily afford it.