.015 / .020 deep engraving in 4140 - What kind of laser does it take ?
Not sure if this is the right place to ask this but if anyone could help me that would be great.
What I need to do is Laser Engrave .015 / .020 deep in 4140 carbon steel.
I have an old 3 Axis CNC vertical machining center with a true programmable 4th axis rotary that I want to retrofit / replace the spindle with a laser on the “Z” axis and use it to engrave.
Now this seems pretty straightforward to me, remove the spindle – replace it with a laser. The laser cuts instead of a cutter in a spindle the “X” “Y” and “A” provide precision movement with the use of standard “G” code programming.
The “Z” axis can be moved for focus as needed.
But I am hung up on 2 details. (Probably because I don’t know a thing about lasers)
1) What would I need as far as laser power to reliably engrave .015 / .020 deep in carbon steel ?
2) How will I interface the “firing” on and off of the laser with the CNC so I can engrave and everything is not connected by a burn line. I would like to do this with an “M” code much like spindle on /off (M3)-(M5) unless there is a better way of course.
IE:
1)Laser on- engrave the letter “A”
2)laser off
3)Move to new position
4)Laser on- engrave the letter “B”
5)laser off
6)Move to new position
and so on.
If anyone here could point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it.
Also, does anyone know of a unit that is commercially available that I could just blot on ? This is an option for me too.
Thanks in advance.
MassiveTool