The one question we are asked the most here at Fatlab Designs is about engraving, specifically

“can you engrave this?”

Generally the answer is yes, as we pride ourselves on being able to put any design on virtually any material.

Before we explain how we engrave, it’s worth looking at how engraving has evolved. Traditional hand engraving has been practiced by skilled craftsmen for centuries and involves the use of hardened steel hand tools being used to remove metal (and wood when carving) to form a design. Hand engraving is extremely time consuming and has mostly been replaced by machine engraving on all but the most expensive items.

Most people are familiar with the type of engraving done at a high street shop where you can get keys cut, pet tags and trophy plates engraved. These are typically done using a machine which has a rotating diamond bit to create a groove in the material. They can either be template based where the engraving follows a guide or template of the letters to be marked. These are typically limited to straight lines of simple text. Some machines are now computer controlled and allow limited customisation perhaps being able to change typeface/font and simple graphics.

More advanced again is laser engraving, the principal is the same in that the laser beam removes metal creating a mark in the metal. The big difference is that a laser can engrave the surface of the material so accurately that it can not only engrave text, but any image or design including photographs.

So how does the magic happen?

Firstly we work with you to understand your requirements. What the item or material is you want engraving. You may just have a rough idea for text or a logo or you may already have a the artwork for a complex design. We then take the design and use our design software to create the layout which will be sent to the lasers. The software allows us to save your design which then can be adapted for engraving on virtually any material. Whether it be a 40oz thermal cup, slate coaster, wooden plaque or piece of jewellery, the design can be reproduced time and time again. 

For complex designs we will send you a proof for sign off before we commit to production. Once the design is approved we schedule the production run on the appropriate laser for the job.

At Fatlab Designs we use two different types of laser to engrave metal, slate, acrylic, wood and glass. The reason is that materials react differently to laser energy and so we have two machine types which use different laser wavelengths. 

Fibre Lasers

Our fiber lasers are used to engrave all metal and slate items. They are equipped with rotary attachments which allow engraving of curved surfaces as small as the inside of a ring and as large as a 300mm diameter dish or bowl.

These lasers use a fibre optic cable to direct the laser energy to a fixed head which has two rotating mirrors which direct the laser beam around the work area. It is capable of 100th of a mm accuracy with a laser dot size of 0.08mm. This allows very fine accuracy and enables the laser to precisely deliver the same results over and over again at very high speed. Thin metal sheet such as gold, silver and aluminium up to 0.5mm thick can be cut with the fibre lasers.

CO2 Lasers

Our CO2 lasers are used for both engraving and cutting of wood and acrylic materials and also for engraving powder coated water bottles and thermal cups using a rotary attachment.

These lasers use a sealed tube filled with carbon dioxide which is energised with up to 20,000 volts causing the CO2 molecules to admit a high energy beam. Unlike the fibre laser, the CO2 laser’s mirrors are mounted to the gantry and direct the laser beam to the laser head as it moves around the workspace. The much larger workspace allows for cutting sheets of wood and acrylic which we use in our signs and multi layer wood mandalas.