Types of materials ARA Presentation March 2012

CORELDRAW AND YOUR LASER

ENGRAVER PART 2

Presented by Mike Clarke

Who is Mike Clarke

40 years in the awards and engraving business

Manufacturers Rep since 1988 Has been selling lasers since 1991 Have been using CorelDraw since 1991 Featured writer for the Engravers

Journal Constantly calling on Engravers and

Trophy shops

My lines include Full line of Trophy Supplies such as

resins, glass, plaques, and acrylics Custom Castings Full Line of solid wood and custom

manufacturing Full line of engraving equipment,

sublimation and engraving supplies

My email is

mike@engrave.ca

My website is

www.engrave.ca

Rules of the seminar

I will be working in X5 I am getting older so my memory is

fading Questions are allowed. Please do not

hesitate to ask if something is not clear Oohs and aahs are allowed

DIFFERENT TYPES OF MATERIALS

There are 2 Types of Materials

The first is Course or Porous Material

The Second is Fine or Smooth Material

FINE MATERIALS

Characteristics of Fine Materials

Large Contrast No Grain Able to hold a good dot Able to create a small dot Typically requires lower power

Types of Fine Materials

Laserable Plastic Anodized Aluminum Laserable Aluminum Black Blass Plated Steel Leather Acrylic AlumaMark

EXAMPLES OF FINE MATERIALS

Anodized Aluminum

Leather

Black Brass Plates Steel

Laserable Aluminum

Gold AlumaMark

Silver AlumaMark

Acrylic

Best and fastest Images

If you want the best looking images they typically can be found when you do them on these types of materials

If you want to produce products fast they should be done on this material

COURSE OR POROUS

PRODUCTS

Characteristics of Course Materials

Low Contrast Lots of Grain Able to hold or create a bad dot Able to create a large dot Typically requires higher power

Types of Course Materials

Wood Marble Glass Thermark Materials Mirror Corian Fabric

EXAMPLES OF COURSE

MATERIALS

Wood

Wood

Corian

Glass

Marble

Marble

Marble

Mirror

Mirror

Thermark - Steel

Thermark - Ceramic

Fabric

Bowling Balls

Coffee Mug

Rules about Material

Know your material in its limitations – Oak Versus Anodized Aluminum

Never say you can laser something without qualifying to the customer that it may not work – thus try to limit expectations if you are not familiar with a material

Rules about Materials

Certain ways we process images are determined by the material we work on. Tomorrow when we talk about photographs this will become clearer

Test and and than test again