I’ve been researching different marking solutions for industrial use, and I keep coming across the laser marking machine for metal as a top choice. From what I understand, it offers permanent and precise results on stainless steel, aluminum, copper, and other materials — which seems perfect for industries like automotive, medical, and electronics.
I’d love to hear from others who have experience with these machines:
How reliable are they for long-term, high-volume use?
Do they really reduce maintenance compared to traditional marking methods?
I’m actually looking for a machine myself. Are there any decent options under $500 that has a surface area of at least 20”x8”? I have a specific sized aluminum faceplate that I’d like to powder coat and laser etch.
There’s some open frame options in that range like creality. Wouldn’t say they instill much confidence though. You could use a CNC mill, those are much cheaper for large areas. You have more flexibility with materials but more setup.
Worth checking sendcutsend and protocases prices if you’re okay with sending it out. Sendcutsend just added laser engraving a few months ago.
Hackerspaces and fablabs usually have laser cutters also. That’s a great option if you’ve got one nearby.
I have a CO2 and a Fiber laser, usage depends on material I want to cut/engrave.
CO2 for anything organic and some plastics. Fiber for Metals and marking Certain plastics (like abs).
with unlimited budget you could do almost any job, but in case you need to process metals be aware that the surface area / power ratio can quickly go over budget.
my 50W Fiber Laser has a working area of 90x90mm /150x150mm depending on Lens installed and you certainly want to use the smallest lens suitable for the job for the best yield.
CO2 Lasers have a lot larger working area / cost due to their construction principle. So I´d first formalize what Laser jobs you will actually encounter and look up if a suitable machine is within your budget. a Fiber laser that could engrave large work pieces or even cut metal can very easily get very expensive.
If you can’t keep the machine occupied all the time outsourcing might be a better option.
I have reached my cutoff, anything I can´t process with my two machines will be outsourced.
As an added question in this thread, has anyone attempted cutting PCBs with a fiber laser? I have a 70W CO2 laser and it sort of works but is messy.
I cannot really endorse this product but I’m considering purchasing the XTOOL F2 Ultra. It seems that its strong suit is metal engraving. Especially color onto stainless steel which is a very neat thing.
My experience with CO2 is Monport Mega. I don’t recommend it. Software is trash and it does not engrave Metals well. It does just OK at cutting things like acrylic.
My contract manufacturer required a reputable class 1 laser system. After much investigation and discussion with them, we agreed that the BOQX check all the boxes It looks like the BOQX is no longer on the website…
The JS220 enclosure is sandblasted, black anodized aluminum, and I really like the look of the white MOPA laser marking. The engraving takes about 1 minute per unit.
We have been using this for over three years for relatively small volume production, and it has been great. We did spend some time tweaking the settings and adding another pass. A later batch of enclosures arrived with a thicker anodizing, which required a bit more laser time to get a nice finish.
I’ve got an XTools S1 20W + 2W IR head, and a F1 (also with IR). I had success with marking anodizing as well as raw metal (also has an IR option). It also works well for PCB marking with caveat as mentioned about fumes!
For raw metal marking the IR head will work without a spray like cermark, but it’s still not super-dark at that lower power, so depending what you are looking for would need to evaluate it more carefully.
The galvo head (like F1) is good for small areas - higher resolution & much faster than the gantry. Max size is of course limited however, but for marking purposes is probably closer to what you want.
It looks like the BOQX is no longer on the website…