Adjusting EZCAD2 Freq below 20khz limit to achieve faster more aggressive engraving

[John Kleiber]

I've been trying to get greater depth in aluminum, without slowing the speed or increasing the line resolution.

Is it possible to adjust EZCAD2 Freq below 20khz limit to achieve faster more aggressive engraving depths?

I tried lowering via the F3 Param and could see no change. I surmise it is a limit of the Raycus.

ezcad2_markcfg7.jpg

[Scott Shepherd]

I tried lowering via the F3 Param and could see no change. I surmise it is a limit of the Raycus.

Either the Raycus source or the board that's driving it. Either way, I think you're stuck at 20KHz or higher.

[matthew knott]

You can't with a raycus, infact there is little point with any fiber for deep engraving a 1mj 20 watt laser will be making peak power and 20khz a 30w will be 30khz ! The raycus won't run below 20 and will just bottom out at that (if it's a 20watt) I can tell you how to adjust the software but bottom line is it won't do anything!

[John Lifer]

My jpt will go from 1 to 400 kHz. But going below 20 doesn't speed it up. 20 is lowest I've seen raycus go.

[Bill George]

John what does the Wobble selection do for it? I have never used.... or maybe once seemed pretty aggressive.

[John Kleiber]

John what does the Wobble selection do for it? I have never used.... or maybe once seemed pretty aggressive.

I have not tried adjusting wobble. Rarely do I mess with it. I will check it tomorrow.

[John Lifer]

Wobble Should help. I use a .2mm dia and a .1mm distance on aluminum with 600 speed, 80% power and 40kHz and hatches of 45/135 at .03
Pretty aggressive and gives a bit 'rougher' bottom finish with is darker than without. I need to get a really good loop to look closer I guess.

[John Kleiber]

Here's what started all this....

I cannot show any pictures, sorry, I can only use the following generic example. I have a customer that is telling me that another engraver can mark the following in 5 minutes;

Material: Aluminum.
Depth of engraving: .45 mm
Average size of character: 8.3mm tall x 7.5mm wide
Number of characters: 11

It takes 30 minutes for my 50w Fiber to do that.

I have been running all kinds of tests this week between projects. Nothing even comes close to that level of depth/time performance.

Is the customer blowing smoke?

I just cannot imagine what settings or level of fiber would be capable of this.

[Scott Shepherd]

A couple of things. First, "Can you show me one that you had done for $5.00?". Often times what they say isn't exactly correct. Maybe it's rotary engraved. You could probably do that for $5.00.

Second, let them walk.

We quoted a job a month or so ago. It was 20 minutes run time on our Trotec. They told us they were having them laser engraved for $3.00 each. Sorry, I'm not working for $9.00 per hour. That doesn't cover our labor cost. It was 4,000 pieces. Have a nice day, nothing we can do to help you at $3.00 each.

[Gary Hair]

Those dimensions are approx. 3/8" tall by 3-1/4" wide and .017" deep. Depending on the characters that is possible to do in less than 30 minutes but I doubt it would take only 5 minutes. However, it really depends on the characters. If you have a solid area that size vs 11 of the letter "I", the time difference would be significant. My machine is 30 watts but I think I could do better than 30 minutes.
I'm sure you are protecting your customer, as you should, but could you give any more detail on the characters? Are they numbers, letters, grahpics, etc.?

Here's what started all this....

I cannot show any pictures, sorry, I can only use the following generic example. I have a customer that is telling me that another engraver can mark the following in 5 minutes;

Material: Aluminum.
Depth of engraving: .45 mm
Average size of character: 8.3mm tall x 7.5mm wide
Number of characters: 11

It takes 30 minutes for my 50w Fiber to do that.

I have been running all kinds of tests this week between projects. Nothing even comes close to that level of depth/time performance.

Is the customer blowing smoke?

I just cannot imagine what settings or level of fiber would be capable of this.

[John Kleiber]

To get an idea of the characters style, use Arial Black font as shown in the "BOLD" text below.

arial_black.jpg

[Gary Hair]

A quick test on my machine with the text "ARIAL BLACK" at 8.3mm tall (which ended up 83mm wide), took 1:17 per pass using 100 speed, 100 power and 30 frequency. I used a single hatch at 0 degrees and .05 line spacing. The alloy of aluminum will have an affect on the speed, but not too terribly much. This single pass got me about .001 deep, so math tells me it should take 17 passes to get .017 deep, but experience tells me that it would take more than that, maybe 20-25. So, my 30 watt machine will make your mark in less than 30 minutes, but not by much, but nowhere near the 5 minutes your customer told you.

Since you have a Taig, how about running it in Mach to see how long it would take? I'm guessing it could be closer to that 5 minute mark than a laser.

[Kev Williams]

I think the key to this whole discussion is "I have a customer that is telling me that another engraver can mark the following in 5 minutes..."

Either: one of them is, umm, let's say mistaken... -- or -- there's some confusion as to the machinery involved. That time frame quoted is just about on par with my TOOL engraving. Fiber's are grand, but there ain't no off the shelf fiber that will anywhere near keep up with my tool engraving machines--

OK, I just had to test---

I drew this up in Corel, it's 7.7mm tall, 74.7mm long. It's 12 characters but who's counting...
The top shows the hatch routine for a .015" tip tool with 40% overlap...
TS1.jpg
I ran this on a piece of scrap fiberglass (hoffman box hole cut), at .4" per seconnd,
which would reasonably cut this in one pass in aluminum.
This is the time it took--
TS2.JPG

coincidence?

This is .18" deep, which is pretty deep--
TS3.JPG

I know this-- IF I could find a fiber laser that would engrave like this HALF as fast as I did this, I'd buy 4 of 'em and sell everything else...

[John Lifer]

I was curious, and ran Kev's 12charachters in your Ariel rounded bold at 8.3, which is closer to 7.8 mm using the above specs I posted but upped the power to 100%. Ran two passes,with the two hatches, so equivalent to 4 passes. 5 min 40 seconds for both. Soft aluminum, it is roughly 5 thousandths deep. Rough bottom, so it may be 6 in the grooves. So at least 17 minutes to get close to the depth. Material does make a difference, if you aren't testing on his material, it could make big difference. I've a bunch of aluminum treadplate that is hard! It takes at East twice the time on that plate vs this soft piece....

But I do bet it is tooled rather than lasered

[John Kleiber]

It's not milled, corners are too sharp and bottom is rough.
From what I have been able to determine, the competitor low balled the deal BIG TIME and charged 1/10 of what he should have.
Thanks all for your input. Lets see what happens. As long as I am technically correct I am ok with the outcome.

-John