Laser engraving peek plastic12/9/2023 ![]() ![]() This can create the illusion of shadows and depth, which is vital when engraving something like a photograph. ![]() First, it means we can create a mark in these materials in silver (or white) but we can also mark them in an almost infinite number of shades of black or silver. This is important for at least two reasons. There are special charts, or scales, that can be purchased or created to replicate the various shades of gray. If you are not familiar with grayscales, they are commonly used in photography or lithography to determine the proper exposure of film, printing plates, etc. Some plastic-like materials that respond to a fiber laser, including FiberGrave, will not only change color when marked, they will also accept grayscale gradients. ![]() Should the material tend to melt or deform, the size of the mark would be greatly exaggerated and one of the most valuable assets of the fiber laser would be lost-its ability to create extremely tiny text, barcodes, etc. Partly because the spot generated by a fiber laser is extremely tiny (.0001”-.0005”), but partly because the materials it marks are capable of holding such a tiny mark. This I do know: The mark created by a fiber laser is incredibly precise. Perhaps there is a term for it, but I don’t know what it is. In the case of the white FiberGrave, the term “bleaching” doesn’t really work since the laser turns it silver. This effect is sometimes called “bleaching.” That is the same term used when marking anodized aluminum as the heat of the laser literally bleaches out the color of the anodized coating. You see that term a lot on the specifications list for various engraving plastics and it means the base product is acrylic but it has other chemicals added in to make it perform as desired.Īs you might expect, the black FiberGrave material turns white when exposed to a fiber laser. ![]() Thus, a more accurate term would be to “mark” the material.įiberGrave is a modified acrylic material. When marking plastics using a fiber laser, the term “engraving” is really not accurate since the laser doesn’t remove any material. This is the result of engraving a grayscale from a CorelDRAW file. Rowmark provides two free samples (one white, one black) of FiberGrave that you can test. Only one side has a protective film on it to protect it from scratches, but the material is highly resistant to scratching so more often than not, both sides can be used. Both colors have a matte finish on both sides and both sides can be marked. FiberGrave is sold in full sheets (24” x 48”), half sheets (24” x 24”) and quarter sheets (12” x 24”) just like most of the other Rowmark products. 040” or a little less than 1/32” and approximately 3/64” thick. It is also UV stable for applications such as industrial tags, labels and ID plates.įiberGrave is available in two thicknesses. The material is easy to handle and fabricate, and can produce durable markings such as photographs and barcodes. Rowmark’s new material is called “FiberGrave.” In the realm of laser engraving in our industry, this material fits in nicely for those who have applications for using a fiber or YAG laser (as opposed to a CO2 laser) to make highly detailed markings on a durable material other than substrates like traditional injection molded plastics, aluminum or stainless steel. This is quite different from the two-color plastics consisting of a cap and a core that are commonly used with CO2 lasers. That is, it is the same color throughout the plastic. It comes in two colors, black and white, and is a single-color material. Rowmark recently introduced their first material intended exclusively for the fiber laser. What this boils down to is the frequency of a fiber laser won’t have much effect on the engraving plastics we are familiar with. Ultraviolet light, for instance, is so high on the spectrum the human eye can’t see it while sunlight and a variety of artificial types of light are in a very narrow range of frequencies that we can see. Granted, the two laser beams are generated in totally different ways (one is done with a CO2 gas-filled tube while the other is done totally with solid state electronics) but the end result is a difference in light frequency, or wavelength.Īs you know, all light (visible and invisible) can be measured in frequency. To keep it in terms I can understand, the difference between a fiber laser and a CO2 laser is in the frequency of the laser beam being generated. This image is a photograph of a newspaper photograph that was photocopied and then engraved on FiberGrave. FiberGrave allows lasering a respectable image even with a poor quality photo. ![]()
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