Fiber laser advice

[DanG]

I'm considering buying a fiber laser but not sure what they can do, How smart are they?
I was asked to engrave a coin (actually several hundred coins) to a specific place on the coin. (orientation) Can fiber lasers achieve that smartly or would it be difficult. Which laser would you recommend.

Pic

[joejones]

Again, I will suggest the XTOOL F1 ULTRA laser. I know that some people here don't like the enthusiasm, and the innovative nature, and the PACE of the XTOOL product line, but I have several of their lasers and I am nothing but happy.

The F1 Ultra has automatic shape placement for laser etching. This means, you can get a dog tag for example, and simply lay out the design on the software. Now you grab a handful of metal anodized dog tags and LITERALLY toss them onto the conveyor belt from the left side, one by one. Position and orientation are unimportant!

The software will use the camera to identify the position and orientation of the blank, and it will put the design where it needs to be, regardless of the position of the blank as it passes beneath the laser. This is, at least for ME, an awesome advantage! There is no need to create a jig, or align the tags, or anything, really. Just toss the tags onto the conveyor, and they will spill off of the other end with the design properly positioned and etched onto the tags.

Now, for a round coin, with a requirement to etch something onto the existing coin face, you will need to help the software out, just a bit. I am ASSUMING this, because I have not yet tried the experiment myself.

I am GUESSING that you may need to create some sort of holder to place behind the coin, to determine the correct orientation of the coin face, so your etching appears where it must.

For example, you might need to make small plastic or wood coin holders, that change the coin's shape from round to something more easily recognizable, such as a teardrop or a U-BOLT shape.

The photo below shows you an example of what I am talking about.

Joe

F1 ULTRA ETCH DEMO.jpg

[DanG]

Maybe it could tell by the image already on the coin? I edited 1st post with link to image since insert img doesn't work for me.
Is xtool the only one with that ability?

[joejones]

I don't know. Everyone is so "copy cat" these days. I do not believe XTOOL has the exclusive use of this auto-recognize feature, but I do not know enough about the other brands and other software to speak intelligently on the ability to recognize the orientation of a coin's face using a camera.

I have not tried the F1 ULTRA yet, to test this feature. I figure, I will take a handful of pennies, and create a small design to be etched around the date, like an ellipse, for example. Then I will toss assorted pennies, new, used, tarnished, etc. onto the conveyor to see how well the F1 ULTRA "sees" the coin face to place the ellipse around the date as desired. I EXPECT the software WILL FAIL at this test, because there is not enough definition on a coin face for it to determine whether the coin is oriented correctly, or upside down, or even if the FACE is laying on the belt and the obverse side it facing the laser.

It will be an interesting test, for sure!

Joe