7 Fascinating Facts About Laser Engraving

Personalizing wholesale cutting boards using laser engraving are a popular way to advertise your brand with a logo, date, name, address or saying. In fact, almost any image can be engraved. It is a natural on wood, producing results that are clean and detailed.

Here is a look at 7 interesting facts about laser engraving you probably didn’t know.

#1. It’s not new.

Laser engraving has been around since the 1960s and has since become the principle method of etching a variety of materials. The machines were invented in the 1950s, but in the popular culture they were considered something out of Buck Rogers or James Bond.

According to Engraver’s Journal, they became a popular tool for engravers in the late 1970s with the coming of the microcomputer. Early efforts were very expensive because it required using metal stencils in order to engrave a piece of wood. The first machines were large and cumbersome, but produced superior engraving.

#2. Modern engraving machines fit on a desktop.

With advances in microelectronics came smaller, portable laser machines. They hook up to a computer, much like a printer does. And many are as easy to use as a printer too. The actual laser is about the size of a pencil.

#3. Lasers engrave more than wood.

Laser engraving machinery is used to produce designs on a range of natural materials like finished leathers. Stone and glass can be engraved using lasers. Even latex rubber can be engraved, used for inking stamps. Plastics are often engraved, especially for awards and signage.

Metals have long been engraved. Even small screws are engraved with size and identification numbers. It is used on metal plates, often for brass- or silver-coated steel lettering. Jewelry is a natural for laser engraving, which can be done precisely in very small areas.

Laser engraving also has a wide range of applications in industry.

#4. Lasers produce no heat.

A beam of light from a laser has no temperature. The heat happens when the beam hits the surface of the wood, which changes the light energy into heat. No part of the machinery touches the item being engraved, only the light beam.

#5. Lasers produce detailed designs

The laser beam is intense, which makes it capable of cutting through dense materials like metal, wood, paper, leather, rubber, fiberglass, acrylic, plastic, ceramics, marble and precious stones. It can produce images with a detail of over 1000 dots per inch.

#6. Lasers produce superior designs.

The definition that a laser-engraving machine makes possible is much more detailed than older types of equipment like the pantograph. Text and images look flawless.

This advance in engraving technology is cheaper and faster, but produces an end marking that is much higher quality that what was possible before its introduction.

#7. Lasers are environmentally friendly.

The process of engraving with a laser does not require toxic chemicals. It also doesn’t leave a chemical residue when the work is done. This makes laser engraving a healthy procedure for workers and for customers.

When you order laser engraving on your cutting boards, the design is clear, defined and permanent, lasting as long as the cutting board.