How to Maximizing Your Laser Production

Posted by Steven Glassner on September 11th, 2019

With laser engraving and cutting system, there is one thing that comes as an absolute benefit: the speed. These systems render the fastest results to etch a pattern or cut the piece with the design. But when you have such a system in place, it is important to maintain efficiency otherwise it can hamper your overall growth. So, here are six hacks to help you with maximizing your Laser Production.

1. Make a Batch

A basic thing to pay your attention to. When you print multiples at one time, it reduces production time. This can be possible in the cases when you require the same engraving or cutting on more than one item. When you engrave in batches, you can experience an increase of 37% in the time savings. When you are working in the batches, how many products would go in once depends hugely on the table size. You need to enlarge the page size in your graphic design program to match the full table size where you place your laser. In such cases, you can use a jig to space out the items. The output from any batch would be a result of using the right nozzle which includes a Trumpf nozzle or Precitec nozzles. 

Adjusting Resolution

This is another factor to consider when you want to increase production. Especially in engraving jobs, it is important that the final image output is adequate. When you keep your DPI(Dots per inch) higher, it will take longer to engrave the item. And if your DPIs are higher, then the dots are going to be closer together. This will produce a detailed image, but it might take a bit longer time. If you lower your engraving resolution a bit, it can increase your time savings by 33% or more. The key here is to find the right combination of resolution and pattern which render achievable results with good quality in less time. 

Color Mapping

Using color mapping can save your engraving time. For example, there is a design with three columns and in it, there are 30 names. At first, the laser will see it as one image and the laser head will travel over the white space columns to engrave the graphic. When you have a color mapping in place, it enables you to skip all the white space as it assigns each column a different color and an associated engraving order. This way, the laser will engrave one column at a time, traveling over white space. It will save you almost 43% time depending on the item you have put for the job. For better results of this technique, you can use a Trumpf nozzle or Precitec nozzles in the implementation.

Center engraving

This makes it easy to work with the various sized items, as you can create a custom template for each one. It allows the user to move the laser by hand to the center of the project. Set the center point as the new home position and the laser will utilize that point to properly place the graphic. Compared to other items it will save you a lot of time.

Pre-engrave Items

Customization is a great opportunity to give your business a new customer base. But singular jobs can prove to be very inefficient. Because if you load and produce the same design over and over in your engraving machine, it consumes a lot of your production time. To overcome this obstacle, you can pre-engrave and create an inventory of your popular items. This way you can just load pre-engraved material and save a lot of money & time.  Thus, pre-engraving can help you to engrave the same items in one go to decrease the production time. It becomes easy to pre-engrave the major graphics of the design onto a batch. Once the order comes in, you can simply use one of the pre-engraved boards back in the machine.

Using Job Manager

Using a job manager will help in keeping track of the regular jobs done in your laser machine. It becomes easy to streamline your laser processing workflow. It saves your time by giving you access to job time records, databases, status and more. 

In a Nutshell

It is important to maximize your laser production for long-term production benefits. When it comes to laser machines, keeping these little things in place would help you eliminate unnecessary gaps in your system. Plus, an increased rate of the job will be your additional advantage.