I and reasonably new to fiber lasers…at least when it comes to things that are not pure metal. I have played around with a ton of settings trying to get the perfect ablation of the powder coating on JDS and Yeti powder coating. I am getting a bit frustrated in not only trying to get the settings to do what they need to do but also not marking the metal or the anodizing under the coating. I hear it and have seen it done with a galvo fiber laser, but yet to have success in doing so.
For note, I have done a sample testing with the material test and I have yet to fine tune things enough to get it not to damage the metal under the coating OR have the coating need help removing via something like acetone.
I have done both two pass and single pass and even cleaning passes too…Im at a loss and dont really want to turn to AI to get even close to a setting I can fine tune and when all I am doing is burning through potential product in testing for settings.
I get that no two lasers are alike, I get that no two powder coats will be the same when it comes to colors. so on so forth. But just a good setting that comes closer that I have gotten thus far. I have searched alot and this is the settings right now that I have that seem to be ok…but make it so chemicals are needed and thus I get color change on the coating.
Lens size. 150mm is that I have been working with, I do have a 200mm as well 75mm.
Do you de-focus - No, and as to the how much, I am not really 100% sure if I should de-focus on the down or the up of the focus knob (closer to the or farther from). I’m new enough to rotary and powder coat ablation that I am totally at a loss for parts of it, and I thought it would be easier that this to figure out considering I have done rings and metals and things for a long time with other machines.
I do make sure that the bottle or what not us level as well not just the rotary itself also. and I make sure to note the diameter with a caliper as well each item and the area that I am engraving on.
I Thank You for all the help in advance and please let me know if there is anything else I need to post.
Just went through this with a friend, should be able to get good results. 13300 steps is unusual setting, are you 100% sure you get exactly 360 degrees of rotation when you hit the “Test” button? Where did you get the 13300? If the steps are not correct nothing else matters.
Use the largest lens you have that will work over the rotary, if the 200mmX200mm lens has enough clearance use that. We are set up with enough tower so we can use a 300x300 over the rotary. With the 300X300 we add around 5mm defocus (Increase, upward) so maybe start with 3mm defocus for the 200X200. With our 60W lasers we run around 750mm/s speed and around 30% power, take a little trial and error to convert to 50W/ 200 lens but 100% power seems really high.
EDIT: Cleanly removing coatings with a fiber galvo laser on a rotary is an advanced level operation. It can be done but takes some time in the saddle and when you change colors or products plan on starting over.
I kinda figure it was more advanced, and always was up for the challenge but its nice to hear it as well. But that being said, yes it seemed odd to me before now about that setting too, but I will now double check and make sure the rotary is set up right on rotations. I have checked it a few times in the past to make sure of a full 360 and not like a 361 or 359 even , but I will because of this now make sure again to check this as well. And I will have to set up the 200mm as well again for calibration and what not, and try it out with the suggested de-focus as well. I will get back to you on this when I can test accordingly, but I THANK YOU for all the help even in this information alone, its for sure easier to ask in this case that beat my head on the table in frustration thinking I was wrong in trying to go this rout with things.
Edit: yeah actually that setting for the 100% power was not the case when i was testing things, I was much less and never been over about 20% power with any of this. that was a saved file that I pulled up on a different PC from the cloud thinking it was the right one below now that you point that out I looked and now have the proper uploads for what was in that picture for the bottle.
Those settings look a lot better but change your scan angle to zero (parallel to the rotation Y axis)
For starters I would make the Line Interval 0.0218mm, and the split 0.218mm (10 times the LI), Could go 17X, 100X but I think your 18mm split is way too large. Defocus 3mm. ZERO on overlap. (Last resort setting)
