I print cards, and ive been trying to accomplish a “Raised Lettering” effect that after doing some research i found out was done with laser , came accross a claim that it was about the temp/power of the laser, not sure if it was somewhat stratigically melting/heating it at a temp that made it bulge/rise … long story short, i am looking, to purchase a unit/solution/machine that will add/ech/print black text on plastic card with preprinted background… is there a way to get laser to not just engrave or cut, but also make the plastis rise up. ANY insight would be greatly appreciated. ill try link examples
Wow. I’m gonna spitball here, since I’m not 100% sure what you are referring to. The point is to make a embossed area on a plastic card, correct? I can see two possibilities, one would be to boil the plastic, I doubt that will work. Perhaps if someone makes blanks specifically for the purpose they might react. Lasers put energy into a small area, either infrared or visible (or ultraviolet) light.
This causes chemical and physical changes in the item. With glass, local heating causes tiny fractures that frost the glass, a physical change. With wood, the wood is charred and burned away, hopefully in a way that strictly limits the burned area. This is a chemical change.
I can imagine a planned chemical change to a specially treated card. I can’t imagine it to be likely. Burned plastic would likely be unpleasant and unpredictable.
Another possibility is to powder coat the card. Generally, people do this by engraving the item, and without moving the item or at least with having a way to put it accurately back into registration, a jig perhaps, they loosely put a small amount of powder onto the surface of the engraving. Some pack it into the engraving, some just pile it in. They run the laser over it again, typically at a much lower power.
The powder coat is melted by the laser and fills the grooves left by engraving. This creates an embossed effect.
Powder coating powder is, as I understand it, finely ground plastic with pigment. Commercial powder coating depends on an electrostatic charge to hold the powder to the work until it is baked and melted.
This process depends on gravity, and.sometimes a glass shield is used to deflect cooling fan air.
Different powder coats melt at different temperatures. You would need to find one that melted at a temperature lower than the temperature at which the card distorted.
Also, some plastic just won’t stick to other types of plastic. I have never tried it but I have heard that PETG and PLA, for example, will not bond when you 3d print, so that one can be used as support material for the other because they don’t stick so supports temove easily.
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Have you performed the “Material Test” on the material?
I’m referring to the one found within LightBurn.
Be careful with melting PVC - bad stuff.
I think the powder coat is a promising solution - look to Harbor Freight for cheap powder - at least for black and white. I have not tried this yet, but have the powder on hand for when I get a chance…
Commercially, the machines used to accomplish this are UV LED printers, as opposed to laser engravers.
Tbh, I’d go with 3d printing for this. It’s easy to design 3d embossing/debossing dies and knock em out in a few minutes on a 3d printer. Personally I swear by bambu labs stuff these days, having had various machines over the last 15+ years
edit: As to the actual process, depends on thickness and nature of the specific material.
First of all, I’d avoid PVC as it contains chlorine which, when released by the burning process, will be released and is very corrosive. I’d also check the chemical composition of any plastic I was considering to check for chlorine, as well. Even heating a powder coating on top of the material could release the gas.
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