Buying Guide to Laser Engraving Machines: Five Key Parameters Determine Engraving Quality

If you want to buy a laser for engraving precious metals, there are several key parameters that directly affect the quality of the finished product.The five core dimensions of laser power, beam quality, control system, etc. will help you quickly pinpoint the high-precision machine you need, and avoid making mistakes.By mastering these techniques, the artist can easily enhance the details of the work.

Why is it that when the parameters are not correctly set, the carving is all pits?

A friend recently complained to me that the laser cutting machine he had bought to make jewelry was producing fuzzy edges.Actually, this has nothing to do with the user's skill; 80 % of the time it is due to the wrong equipment settings.Unlike wood or plastic, precious metals have special properties that require precise matching with machine performance.Today we will break it all down and explain which parameters truly affect the precision of the carving.

It's not that the higher the laser power, the better.

Choose a power range based on the material.

Many people think the higher the power, the better. But in fact gold and silver have high thermal conductivity, and a 30-50W laser is more stable than a 100W one.If the power is too high, the material will be burnt, while if it is too low, the engraving will not penetrate the plating.First, try it out on scrap material. You want to find the setting that will give you the clearest imprint without damaging the body.

The only hard and fast rule is that the system should be flexible.

Today, a lot of machines have the ability to adjust the power in real time, so the depth of the carving can be automatically adjusted when carving complex patterns.This feature allows the flower patterns to be more lifelike, and the results are finer than those produced by machines with a fixed power output.

The quality of the laser spot determines the fineness of the line.

Don't be hoodwinked by "0.01mm" advertising.

Businesses always like to boast about their smallest spot size, but in actual cutting, the speed of the galvanometer mirror and the focusing system can reduce dynamic accuracy to 70 % of the advertised figure.The key is beam quality, which is measured by the M2 value. The closer the M2 value is to 1, the closer the beam is to the theoretical limit of focusing.

Give this old-time remedy a try.

We tested the machine with gold foil of 0.1 millimeter thickness, using the smallest power setting.With a magnifying glass, check to see if the edges are smooth and even.Last year I used this method to help a client test a batch of machines, and we found three high-precision machines that didn't meet the standard.

The precision of the guide rail affects repeatability.

(Other parameters are analyzed in the same way.