Single machine utilizing two laser sources can perform more efficient laser etching and cutting.
With the advent of fiber laser technology, CO2 has slowly been losing favor in the manufacturing industry. While that’s true for cutting, CO2 is still ideal for highly detailed etching and engraving work.
Although CO2 laser technology can work exceptionally well for engraving materials like wood and acrylic, it just isn’t effective on steel and similar materials.
ENGINEERING.com had the opportunity to speak with Bob Henry, laser product manager for Epilog Laser, about how both forms of laser technology can be combined in one machine.
The answer: two laser sources.
The video above and Q&A below document interview highlights.
Jim Anderton (JA): Bob, we’re standing here in front of a laser engraving, etching, multipurpose machine, but it’s unusual in that it has two laser sources.
Bob Henry (BH): Indeed. For a long time, we’ve manufactured CO2-based lasers, which are really good for working with wood, acrylics, glass, textiles, cork, leather, rubber and more. However, they’re not very good at marking directly onto bare metal. We introduced fiber lasers some five years ago to accommodate direct metal marking.
We have a new product called the Fusion M2 Dual Source Option laser system that incorporates both CO2 and fiber lasers. So our customers that have mixed media, acrylics, glass, wood and also metal, can now do those processes with one laser system.
JA: The word is that CO2 is dead and everything has gone fiber. This is used for more of a finesse application. You’re not interested in piercing six inches of cold rolled steel here.
BH: That’s correct.
The fiber lasers in our systems are really used for marking applications. To start cutting on metals you need much higher power. We integrate a little bit lower power for the metal marking applications.
Wood, we can cut with our CO2 lasers, as well as acrylics, textiles and items like that. Certainly here at FABTECH you’ll see some very large lasers with very high power for those metal cutting applications, but that’s not a market that we serve.
We have a lot of customers using that type of equipment to create the parts that they need. But rather than using those high watt lasers to mark their components, they’ll use our systems to mark the final component. It’s much more efficient and effective for them to do it that way.
JA: What markets would be the primary users of units like this?
BH: We sell these to so many different markets. We sell a lot to the sign industry, industrial accounts that are creating a component where they need to apply a barcode or serial number or some sort of branding. The machines are so versatile that we can serve all of those markets for many types of materials.
For more information, visit www.epiloglaser.com.
