Some "serious" laser-marking with a fiber-laser ...

... was on an "Advent market" exhibition last week -- and did some "Christmas-deko" with engraved and cut brass sheets:




The "boot" was two tables, where I've placed the marking laser ... and on the other table some other samples (3D-printing, CNC-milling/engraving, others ...):







But one of the visitors wanted some "personal" laser-marking (others will eventually contact me the next days for their "personal" items):



Here the video engraving the part - [vimeo.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2018 06:38AM by VDX.

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

... tested to cut the "MeArm-robot" files ( [create.arduino.cc] ) from 0,4mm brass instead of 3mm acrylic:

[vimeo.com]


Now to find some time to assemble it ... and maybe even more time to find some micro-motors to move the arm(s)







Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2018 04:57AM by VDX.

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

That looks awesome! Great to show off a machine like that.
What power laser did you use in those examples?

... this was a pulsed 20W-fiber-laser

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Quote
VDX
and maybe even more time to find some micro-motors to move the arm(s)

I saw some very small geared motors ( 6mm motor diameter with planetary gears )...maybe still to big?

... yes, still too big

But no problem - this "MeArm"-robot is not meant for productive use (have other piezo-driven XYZ/pan/tilt-stages for this), but more as show-sample -- will assemble it in a fixed pose

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

... one of my sisters designed a series of "witch's houses"

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

... for Easter my middle sister has thought about some "Easter egg" designs - she wants them in brass, but I also thought about distributing them as "silhouettes" in black cardboard on white postcards to some of our shops in town - in cardboard it is much faster (and cheaper) to cut, so that they can give it away as a gift:




Here a videoclip showing the "cutting" of one of the motives - [vimeo.com]

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

... and the same in brass:

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

... here two videos, showing the "lasercutting" (more multi-pass engraving) of the "rabbit-egg" - first in black cardboard:

[vimeo.com]


- and the same file in brass:

[vimeo.com]

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

I wonder what power you use to cut through brass, and is it a Co2 laser ?

... read some posts back - this is all made with a 20Watt fiber-laser.

There is maybe some difference with my setup - most (if not all) low power fiber-lasers and controlling software prohibit slower PWM frequenzies than 30kHz for risk of damaging the resonator.

My fiber-laser has an internal option to reduce the internal power in respect t frequency, if lower than 50kHz.

For "cutting" brass or cardboard I'm reducing the PWM to 2kHz and thus reduced power, it can "cut" through 0,1mm brass with one pass! at slower scanning/moving speeds.

For cutting through the used 0,2mm brass, I have to repeat 3 times - but then the "cut" is so fine, that it's hard to separate the smaller parts ... so I'm repeating 6 times.

With cardboard the PWM frequency is the same, but the scanning/moving speed can be much faster. - Here I'm reducing the power and engrave too with multi passes to prevent excess burning of the material ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

In that case, I guess you could cut through thicker brass, say 1mm, just that you'd need many more passes ?

or would the focus point and/or beam shape prevent cutting through thicker material ?

What frequency is the laser (Co2, ultra violet etc) ?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2019 04:56PM by Pippy.

... the fiber-laser has 1064nm (NIR=Near InfraRed) -- the deeper, the finer the new cut, so not so deep per cut as the previous ones - it's sort of limited by something like a millimeter in metal, if cutting the same line ... could be different, if cutting parallel lines with some ten microns distance to "open" the cut ... but then I'll better use a more powerfull laser

Until now I've cut brass sheets with up to 0,4mm and steel with 0,5mm thickness with the 20 Watts ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

That's a nice and extremely useful tool you have

... thanks!

Actually building/developing around 976nm-diodes with 200 Watts of power on a spot of 0.2mm - lower energy-density than the fiber-lasers, but the sheer power should be enough to cut through 1mm steel with one pass

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

200 Watts is a LOT of power!

Where do you get your lasers I wonder ?

I'm not sure if even a 20 Watt laser diode would get past customs in the UK, don't really know.

... I'm salvaging 9Watt- and 25Watt@975nm NIR-laserdiodes from broken fiberlasers - there are several of them used for "pumping" the energy for the fiber-laser.

The bigger diodes with 808nm or the 200Watt@976nm-diodes are from ebay-sellers, which salvage multi-kW-lasers -- you can see some of the diodes in this post:

[photonlexicon.com]


But caution, the thread with the "through-shot" tile and damaged PS-display was my April joke for this year

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Would be fascinated to see some detailed photos of the guiding mechanics (the micro motors ?), see how you've done it.

... have no plans to "motorize" the Mini-MeArm-robot ... but if, then with piezo-drives, I have from some older microtech-developments.

Here two types, I've found in the shelf (have some other types more for "nano-positioning") - the more expensive (400€) linear "Piezo-Motor" and the much cheaper (60USD) american "oszillating" drives (a sort of "piezo-go-cart" in the background) - they are meant for micro-steps in the range of hundred nanometers "dynamic", or with sub-nanometer accuracy whne "clamped":

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Good god, 200 euros for a little piezo motor lol. A bit out of my price range.

I've used lasers in my designs for ranging and Mbit data linking, but have yet to venture into the high power (high for me) cutting world, which I'd really like too.

Those ones you have look expensive Viktor.

What's the metal box I wonder ? .. is that the laser, or maybe the piezo driver(s) ?

... the "metal box" with the 3 piezo-wedges is only the "heavy mass" to press the ceramic tips of the piezo-oszillators on a surface, so they'll have enough friction for the "dynamic" stick'n'slip motion mode - this was only an experiment to show some possibilities ... the later positioners were made with the "piezo-leg" linear drives and much better controllable (23mm travel length, 150 nanometer per "step", sub-nanometer when clamped) ...

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2019 04:39PM by VDX.

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

... did some tests with solid graphite - normally it's evaporating (or better sublimating) at above 3700 degC ... but on air it's "burning" away with less than 1000 degC.

The quadrate is 20x20mm - the outer area was 1x engraved, the fonts 3x ... and the inner circles maybe 30x times, until it was 1mm deep:

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

... some testing with the 20W-fiberlaser and "deep-engraving" on steel -- here a video showing the different steps:

[www.youtube.com]


And the results:

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

... lasered some 70mm stainless steel discs for "outdoor use" with the 20W Galvo marker for a friend -- the inscription (especially the serial numbers) should withstand >20 years of wind and weather

Here a video showing the marking of a (slightly different) previous part: [www.youtube.com]

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

This looks interesting. Is this machine heavy? I think I can use a laser marking machine to make some money. hahahaha
[www.emitlaser.com]

Quote
Emitlaser
This looks interesting. Is this machine heavy? I think I can use a laser marking machine to make some money. hahahaha
[www.emitlaser.com]

Nice spam account. What shall I do... Remove the spam? It doesn't contribute.

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http://www.marinusdebeer.nl/

... yes - didn't delete it instantly, but was already "on the list"

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

... this depends -- there are many "laser cutter machines" equipped with multi-kW fiberlasers too

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

... here some "vintage" tags made from 0.3mm brass

​​Video -- [youtu.be]


- and results:

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]