Have you ever wondered how images are engraved onto Marble and Granite? This process is actually pretty simple when you have a CO2 Laser Cutting and Engraving Machine, for sale from AM.CO.ZA and Buythis.co.za. In this video, we share the process with you, as well as the steps below:
We start with the artwork in RDWorks. We have chosen a photo of Nelson Mandela. We need to add more shading and increase the dots per inch in the image so that it is visible on the surface of the stone. We use the RDWorks software to do this and the process can be followed in the video. When you zoom out and compare the edited version to the original, and they look similar, then you know you have done it correctly. When you zoom in, you should then see more dots per inch in the edited image. We then need to change the size, so that the correct size is engraved onto our stone. Next, we need to adjust the speed and power of the job. We opt for a slower job speed so that we don’t go too fast and damage the stone but if we go too slow, we can crack the stone. We also don’t want too much power, as we will damage the stone. We also don’t want to go too deep. So we adjust these settings so that we engrave on the stone with the desired result. Lastly, we need to save the file to a memory stick.
We are now ready to do the engraving on our CO2 Laser Machine from the file on the memory stick. We realized that the job was not working, as there was not enough detail being transformed onto the stone. There are darker areas in the image than white areas, and this can cause an issue because the engraving has a light background when engraving but the top surface is dark. So we inverted the image and we were able to get it right. We had to brighten the image because it was too dark, and this fixed the issue. We also changed the frequency and this made the engraving result much better. This shows you how important it is to do tests and get your settings and image correct.
The end result of the engraving on granite came out really well. Let us know what you would like to see next!
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