Back to: LASER ENGRAVING
Laser engraving may seem magical, but it’s a process you can easily understand when broken down into simple steps. Let’s explore how laser engraving works, from generating the laser light to creating amazing designs on various materials.
How Does a Laser Work?
Imagine a laser like a very bright and focused flashlight, but much more powerful and precise. Here’s how it works:
1. Creating Laser Light
- Exciting Atoms: Inside the laser, there’s a special material (like a gas or a crystal). When powered up, it gets excited, kind of like shaking up a soda can.
- Releasing Light: As the material settles down, it releases energy as light—tiny particles called photons.
- Strengthening the Light: Mirrors bounce the light back and forth, making it stronger and super-focused. This concentrated beam becomes the laser.
2. Focusing the Laser
- Straightening the Beam: Special lenses make the laser beam straight, so it doesn’t scatter.
- Sharpening the Point: Another lens focuses the beam into a tiny, sharp point, strong enough to burn, melt, or vaporize materials for engraving.
How Does the Laser Move?
The laser has to move across the surface to draw or engrave your design. It does this in two ways:
- Sliding Around (X-Y Table): The material sits still while the laser moves left, right, up, and down to trace the design.
Photo credit: fasttobuy
- Tilting Mirrors (Galvanometer System): Tiny mirrors tilt quickly to bounce the laser beam around, making it move faster without shifting the material.
Photo credit: cnlasermax
How Do Designs Get Engraved?
- Send a Design: First, you draw your design on a computer and send it to the laser machine.
- The Laser Engraves: The laser moves across the material, following your design. It burns, melts, or vaporizes parts of the surface to create the final image.
Photo credit: hispeedlaser.com, labelsplus.co.nz, theodmgroup.com
What Happens to the Material?
- Burning: For wood or acrylic, the laser burns away the top layer to create the design.
- Melting: On metals, it melts a thin layer, which is then removed.
- Vaporizing: Materials like plastic vanish into smoke, leaving clean marks behind.
With lasers, you can create amazing designs on wood, glass, metal, and more. Whether it’s personalizing a gift or making art, laser engraving turns ordinary items into something extraordinary!