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Laser Engraving?

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JasonP:
For a completely different project I need to engrave some 1" 316 stainless cylinders with some text and graphics that will extend 1/2 of the circumference. Anyone got any experience with this that can advise me on options?
Cheers,
Jason

Dave Otto:
It will take pretty powerful machine to engrave SS, you will also need a rotary to be able to engrave that far around. We have an 80watt Epilogue CO2 laser at work and it will not engrave steel. We use some spray on material (Cermark) that the laser bonds to the metal and looks more like a screen print than engraved. Most of the SS mugs you see that have marking on them are done with something like this.
We also have a 1.5KW fiber laser that excels at cutting sheet metal but is not well suited for engraving, it will only vector cut and not raster. We have done some basic text for marking parts but can't do any graphics.

Not much help, just some of my experiences.
Dave

Overbuilt and Overkill:
A little late to this Jason, but I watched one yesterday that might have some answers for a reasonable cost laser that can engrave steel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ustr75lWiIo Or if that doesn't work, it's a Youtube channel called NBR Works and posted about 3 months ago. Video title is, Will a diode laser engrave Steel? Aluminum? Brass?

ddmckee54:
Ikier is making a 35W/70W diode laser that will engrave and cut some metals.  If the metal is polished and shiny most low power lasers will have a tough time with it.  Sometimes all you need to do kill the shine, like coat it with black tempera paint.  Metals that are highly conductive to heat, like copper or some it's alloys, are a problem for low power lasers.  The low power lasers can't get enough heat into those metals to vaporize the surface.

cnr6400:
Jason P - just a thought, without knowing your project's details - There are far more options if you were to make the engraved bit in brass, as a flat sheet, and bend it to fit the curved part after the engraving is done. It could be glued or riveted on to assemble the two parts. Brass is relatively much easier to chemical /photo etch, laser engrave, sandblast / stencil, EDM, or mechanical hand engrave with Dremel tools. If you were planning to out source the engraving, far more shops will work brass in the flat state than work a curved surface on stainless. The work will likely be far less costly on flat brass than curved stainless. Again just food for thought. I am sure someone in the world can do the engraving on curved stainless, but it might be very costly.   :cheers:

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