Brands like YETI and RTIC (pronounced arctic) have exploded into the marketplace turning what was once a good market for these types of products into an enormous oneeveryone wants a YETI. The cool thing is you can engrave photos and fine details on these mugs. Thanks for the write-up! According to ASI, 53% of U.S. consumers own promotional drinkware and half of those who own logoed drinkware use it 2-3 times a week or more. You can then paint fill the engraved areas using a durable paint like epoxy appliance paint or enamel. Metal Engraving: Can xTool D1 EngraveMetal? With the ever-growing desire among consumers for personalized products, there is no doubt that personalized stainless steel mugs are a hot commodity and something you should definitely consider offering if you have personalization services like laser engraving. Lets figuring out how to get around the process issues that I set out to do. One last thing here. JAS CustomZ, Schertz, TX, is one company that offers powder coating services in addition to laser engraving. Unfortunately, the amount of laser required is different for the different materials we use (they have far different machining characteristics as well) and is some combination of material grade, thickness, and if it has been clear-anodized or not. You need to be able to just melt the powder without burning it off. As a general guideline using a 60 watt CO2 laser you might try 75%-100% power and 100% speed. That will help with fine detail preservation. Colorful powder-coated water bottles customized with an Epilog Laser system. Etching (burning, really) things like powdercoat, paint, acrylic, etc, put off some really nasty fumes. It will Spray the work piece with powder coating. What caught my attention was that the focus of the video was not removing powder coating specifically, but, removing it and replacing it with a different color. reddit's community for DIY Pedal Builders! Why waste it? Drinkware can be coated with one or multiple colors, and special effects can also be achieved such as fades and custom designs. Step 8: Melt media in pockets with laser. Stetson Schwake, owner of S&S Customs, Salado, TX, is one example of someone who has perfected the process and has created some beautiful work. If we're going to use the laser to selectively rough up the material by making pockets, then we are going to need to be able to get the laser right back to the exact same spots later, after we have filled the pockets with powder coating media. The beginning of the mess, as we fill the pockets with media. Its also important to make sure the metal is absolutely clean. Not going to kid you, it took some doing to hammer out this process. More or less, get yourself a little scoop of media, and gently dump it onto your material. In just one case, a construction company handed out logoed travel mugs in conjunction with the grand opening of a business building the company had built which resulted in new contracts for the company. http://www.eastwood.com/hotcoat-powder-coating.html. Glass and ceramic were much worse. There isn't a sure-fire-always-works-perfectly set of instructions for something this nuanced. In 5min, the temp had risen 5C, so about 1C per minute. But before that, this is a challenging technique to get right, and not suggested for beginners who struggle with the basics of operating a laser engraver. The laser acts as a heat source to flow the paint and adhere it to the part in the regions where you want it to adhere. A couple passes gets it down 95% of the way to the bare metal. What I did to solve this was crude but effective - I blocked up the fan's intake just before hitting the go button and unblocked it as soon as the job finished. With the chuck type, the mug is held at each end between centers. You can use either a CO2 or a fiber laser to engrave through the powder coating on mugs. The entire image including all colors is powder-coated, what this means is you can have a high-quality image or company logo with multiple colors with the durability of powder coat! The attraction between material and media doesn't exist. Feel free to subscribe to Cobey's YouTube Channel if you find this post inpiring and helpful to your creation. Let the coating completely dry for at least 5-10 minutes. Its a fun time to be in the Recognition and Personalization Industrytake advantage of it. The thing is, powder coated metal is rough, not smooth, which gives the media plenty of nooks and crannies to get into and hold on with. Copyright 2022 XTL US INC. All Rights Reserved. The powder graphic innovation allows companies such as auto parts manufacturers to brand their products. One nice thing is, as long as you do not move the material, you can run the job again if the first run didn't work out right. In the above case, you can add more media to the pocket and run again, and again, and again. The further out of focus it is, the more power is lost. Now comes the fun part. My initial test materials included ceramic tiles, glass, and wood. First, you need proper eye protection (tinted safety glasses). This tutorial is orginally written by Cobey Schmidt, a proud xTool D1 owner, and is published by xTool with full authorization. It's time for a quick chat on acrylic engraving, not to be confused How to Position Your Material and Laser in xTool D1? You dont have to charge the part, but you can if that is your normal process. However, the process is messy and will certainly take some time and experimenting to perfect. I would assume if you get the right process without burning the initial powder coat you should be able to do it. If you or your customer are working with a company that specializes in powder coating, you can ask to have a small plate powder coated so that you can do some testing on that, rather than the final product. Simply fill out the form below and you will receive an email with the download link to your free copy of our Priceless eBook. Second, the media is tamped down into the pockets so the media at the bottom is squished in the roughed-up material. Download this eBook now and get your company success on the right track to creatively grow and diversify your business. Epilog Laser suggests these settings as a starting point based on using their 30 watt Fusion M2 fiber laser: 6% speed, 100% power, 3% frequency. You'll probably still have some stuck on the material, especially if it's wood. If used on wood, the wood had to dry too, adding further complications. Guidebook to Starting Your Own LaserBusiness, Powder-coated stainless steel water bottle. When the media melts together, all the air between the dust particles is removed, causing the level of the material to drop. I set it up on Thursday morning and did my first engraving. Please fill out the form, and a sales rep will be in touch you with a price of a machine perfect for your needs. There's still some work left to do to get the process optimized and tightened up, but I'm really pleased with the results so far. And then there is the usage aspect. Bam! and 30 oz. [emailprotected]. *We respect your privacy and do not share your personal info with anyone. I love the idea of powder coating. But a laser beam is tiny, ruling out melting media in mass quantities all at once. The field of attraction draws in the dust, so that it sticks to the object's surface. 10%-20% speed and 100% power. 2022 J Tech Photonics, Inc.. All Rights Reserved. Powder-coated water bottles are super popular right now and we're happy to find they laser engrave beautifully, too! How to Prevent the Laser Module Fan from Blowing Powder Away? How to Do Powder Coating with Laser Engraving? As mentioned earlier, the travel mugs this article is focusing on have a stainless steel body and some of them feature double-wall stainless steel insulation to keep beverages either hot or cold for a long time. "But didn't the fan on the laser module blow away the powder?" League City, TX 77573 There a tiny bit of material left over which requires some scraping (dental pick) to remove, but it also kind a looks cool as is (sort of "relic" or oxidized). The other option is to engrave powder coated mugs with either a fiber or CO2 laser. Don't get greedy adding extra passes, as there is a fine line between just a tad low and way too much. Different shapes of mugs are also available but a typical travel mug is narrow at the bottom and wide at the top to be able to hold enough of the beverage yet still fit into a cup holder. Attach the water bottle to the Rotary Attachment and you're ready to laser! Some people have also had success removing any hazing with a Magic Eraser, but be careful not to damage the powder coat on the mug. Another option is to do the powder coating yourself by purchasing a powder coating system, which is essentially a paint gun, and powder coat paint. Epilog Lasers suggestions for engraving CerMark with a 50 watt CO2 laser are 50% speed, 100% power and 600 dpi. I've toying around with the idea of getting a laser engraver for some time now but I had no idea which one to get. Step 6: Spread and pack pockets with media. All fields are required. Powder coatings are available in a huge variety of colors, including metallics, in addition to various finishes, such as gloss, matte and textures. Simply fill out the form below and you will receive an email with the download link to your free copy of our Revenue Streams for Monument Retailers ebook. One of the techniques he uses involves powder coating the metal and, instead of curing it in an oven, using his laser to set the image areas in the powder coat. I received it on Wednesday. Do please experiment, maybe you'll find a better method! Not sure if it needs to be bare or not. If you experience any flaming, you can mask the area with transfer tape prior to engraving. As with any of these engraving methods, you will need to do some testing to determine the appropriate laser settings both for your laser (all lasers are different) and the types of mugs you will be engraving. Next, I modified the test grid to use the combination picked for every box in the grid, which set up the material for the final run to find out which settings to use for melting the media nicely without charring it. Isnt it just another travel mug with a cool name? These colorful bottles are easy to engrave - whether you go with a holiday design or other personalized message, these colorful bottles make great gifts for nearly any occasion. Simply fill out the form below and one of our AP Lazer machine experts will contact you for a consultation. When powder coating met AP LAZER, a new era of powder graphics was born. On the other hand, there are engravers out there who are doing it and doing it with great results. And in my initial experiments, it did. Secure your material so it can't move. Fiber lasers use fiber optics with ytterbium that are stimulated with LEDs (light emitting diodes) to generate and deliver a laser beam instead of using the traditional hard optics and beam delivery method that CO2 lasers use. Not so good, lots of waste, and clogged the brush frequently. Engraving with a Fiber Laser In the case of stainless steel, it can be marked by applying a laser-markable chemical coating prior to engraving. Adjust the artwork as necessary. Bring Big Acrylic Signs to Life with AP Lazer, 5 Advantages of Financing a Laser Engraving Machine, 7 Awesome 3D Laser Products made with a Laser Engraving Machine. This small spot size provides extreme power density and exceptionally high engraving resolution. How to selectively rough up material? Thankfully, a really cool guy named Joe designed a manual homing jig. Laser engraving and cutting machines are immensely powerful. Hello friends! Some engravers are having success color filling engraved powder coated mugs. So, decorative, but not functionalities. Selectively sanding would have been even more tedious. Pretty much everyone agrees that one of the hottest sellers in retail personalization right now, if not the hottest seller, is stainless steel travel mugs. If you use the right speed and power settings, youll have a good quality black mark and fine detail. You can even engrave around the entire circumference of the mug if it doesnt have a handle. I would pick up my finished piece, turn it sideways over a piece of paper, and then tap the material on the paper a few times to get the media off. Those owners want to add color on a smaller scale, color which flows with the material or sticks to the top of the material. Some of the lids, such as some in the RTIC line, are straw friendly. The picture above shows a panel on the left that has not been cured and one on the right that has been cured. You can purchase powder coated drinkware from suppliers or you can purchase stainless cups and have a professional powder coating company coat them. Schools use them in fundraisers. Unfortunately, the amount of laser power required is different for the different end panels I use (they have far different machining characteristics as well) and is some combination of material grade, thickness, and if it has been clear-anodized or not. And it doesn't leave behind a smooth surface if we don't want it to. I think it is quite incredible you can powder coat just about anything that is metal. Download our catalog and get your company on the right track to grow and diversify your business. Covid-19 Update We are Still Open for Online Orders, HODOR Door Stop Project Game of Thrones, Setting Up Mach4 with ESS and J Tech Lasers, Dewalt 611 All-in-One Laser and Mounting Kit Bundle, 5 Amp Adjustable Safety Compliant Laser Diode Driver, Laser Safety Goggles for 445nm and 405nm Lasers, 250nm to 520nm Laser Shielding - 12" x 12", Generic Magnet Mounting Bundle Instructions, Makerbot Replicator 2 and 2x Laser Upgrade, http://www.eastwood.com/hotcoat-powder-coating.html, Cutting Acrylic with the 2.8W Laser Upgrade Kit, Making Prototype PCBs with J Tech Laser Upgrade, Making an Aztec calendar using VCarve Pro and a J Tech laser. I had heard about your great customer service from lots of places and its much appreciated. You dont want to make mistakes on an expensive travel mug, so you might want to experiment on scrap stainless from a machine shop or some of the tools around your shop to fine tune your lasers settings. Step 2: Use a power speed test to rough up your material and determine depth of pockets needed for powder coating media.
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