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Laser Engraver

For the past year, my task as an engineering intern has been to create a laser engraver/marker machine capable of writing text on materials ranging from aluminum to yellow-chromate steel to flame-retardant plastic. The most challenging of the materials, aluminum decided the wavelength I ended up using, as 1064 nm is part of a peak in aluminum's absorption spectra. Therefore, the core of the machine is a 30W 1064nm fiber-coupled laser that I initially fired with a custom driver setup, but now operate with a modified galvanometer driver card. I bought the galvanometer from the same company that I purchased the laser, but the rest of the staging is completely my own design and labor. All of the parts are fully 3D modeled, as well as many being custom machined by our in-house machinist. The main control system is a Surface Pro running 32-bit Windows 10, and the peripheral motion control system is an Arduino Uno running GRBL v1.0. The main enclosure is lightproof to comply with Class IV laser safety guidelines, the front doors being doped acrylic that drops the laser light exposure to safe levels. All-in-all, while the machine isn't perfect, it does work pretty well. Below I have included the three main production parts it will mark (as far as I know at this point).

Aluminum Lugs

The main purpose of this machine is to mark aluminum lugs for production systems. Below is a video of the marking in action. The galvanometer performs the fine beam steering on the two adjacent lugs, and the staging system performs the Y axis movement that brings the next lugs into the marking field. While the galvanometer could fit four lugs at once into its 100mm*100mm work space, the lens aberration becomes to large to correct for.

Red Plastic Bodies

The red plastic bodies are probably the most difficult production parts the machine marks. Because the flame retardant plastic has a peculiar composition, it either burns violently when I have too much power, or doesn't mark at all. Further, the plastic has suspended glass fiber reinforcement that causes uneven marking. Although I have found close to the optimal settings for marking (close to full power, a very fast feed rate, and over ten repetitions per unit of text), it isn't quite perfect.

============================================================================ I am about to do a large run of red plastic when the shipment comes in, so I will take footage then. For now, I thought I'd add a short video of the superb job the galvanometer does when rastering images.

Thanks For Your Patience!

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Grey Plastic Bodies

The grey plastic bodies are much easier to mark than the red plastic bodies, although

as the plastic seems to absorb the laser beam deeper. However, as the particular bodies that I will be marking have yet to be produced, I have only been able to test the feasibility on the same plastic, but different bodies. When the new plastic comes in, I will add a video of the final marking process.