Engraving microplastic plaques- Duets, Rowmark

[Gene Uselman]

Post by Gene Uselman » Thu Mar 30, 2017 9:56 am

I just got a sheet of red [engraves white] 1/16" Duets from JDS and am having trouble with the white being 'dingy' looking- engraving bottom up with very little air assist, and doing two passes. Anyone do Duets or Romark? Thanks Gene

Post by Pete Cyr » Thu Mar 30, 2017 10:03 am

I do and I have cut romark and duet front and reverse- 1/16".
I had to reduce air to virtually nothing and did two passes.
I run 20watts at 400mm/sec
There is still a wee bit of residue when I finish - but you must look very close to see.

Post by Gene Uselman » Fri Mar 31, 2017 7:15 am

Thanks Pete- I am using 8.3 watts @ 100mm, my setup may not be the best for this sort of thing. I have a 2.5" lens coming which I am hoping will help. My air flow is very minimal for engraving and the second pass helps but still not really white. I have been trying different speed/power combos.
I have finally got acceptable results at 300mm x 10% power and 2 passes. I was getting kinda ragged at 400mm- a lot of mass on my machine.

GDU- 3.12.19

Man, that seems like a long time ago... I have done a lot of Duets plastic since and learned a bit. Red on white is the hardest to engrave as the red
stains the white very easily. Low power, as much speed as will still deliver crisp letters and sometime backing off a mm or two on focus helps. It gets easier as you learn, do not get discouraged. I recently did a bunch of personnel Accountability plaques used to be sure all firefighters are out of a burning structure before leaving and they were a snap- red on white of course. Each Firetruck [crew] has a plaque with the names of all crewmembers which is given to the Chief who has a master plaque with all the crews/firemen and contols the fire scene and there may be more than one Chief- you get the idea.

SLP fire.jpg