I recently started engraving jewelry with my galvo fiber and getting perfect alignment is always an issue. I would like to add a camera to the galvo but when I searched the forum I did not find a lot of information.
I have a 110 lens on the galvo with a focal length of 224 mm.
My main question is what cameras have been tested to work well with this lens and what experiences has anyone had with a camera mounted on their galvo.
Thanks
I don’t have any input on the camera, but I’m curious why you don’t use the red light framing on the galvo? I use the Red Light framing on both my Fiber Laser and my UV Laser to get exact placement for things. Granted, I spent a bit of time tuning in the red light, but once it’s all tuned correctly, I can even put a piece back under the machine, and perfectly line things up to run another pass. I think it’s far more accurate than a camera will be for small pieces. Just my two cents though.
The red light framing works great until you need to get the alignment correct to within less than a mm. For small jewelry items and even some coins with raised lips the framing is very difficult to get correct in a reasonable amount of time and especially when you only get one try or you mess up an expensive piece of silver.
With that work area size and focal length I’d recommend our 8MP 75 model: 8MP Camera (4K-N) – LightBurn Software
That’s assuming you can mount the camera to the galvo head in a position that lines it up pretty close to the laser’s lens.
With that said, while sub-millimeter accuracy is possible with a camera, it depends on getting a really accurate calibration and alignment, then making sure the camera always maintains its exact position relative to your work area. Having the camera move with the galvo head as you adjust height to mark different items helps, but if you’re doing that manually there could be small discrepancies that reduce camera accuracy.