Nowadays, laser engraving or laser marking technology is becoming popular among people as well as industrial manufacturers. It is increasingly being adopted by businesses, product designers, and even hobbyists to engrave or mark an object. Without using ink, it is a swift and easy way to personalize objects, like window glass, wine glasses, beer mugs, vases, or bottles.
The laser engraving process involves striking the glass object with the laser, which creates a frosted effect. The technology is widely adopted by glass and other companies to engrave custom logos on their products.
When the laser strikes glass, it doesn’t deeply engrave the object but simply leaves a beautiful frosted effect on it. However, it is often seen that the laser process has left some roughness or chipping on the etched glass. If you are also a laser fan and want to create that amazing look on the glass without any roughness, follow these 7 tips.
1. Choose the right glass type
To get that perfect smooth frosted look, the first and foremost task is to examine the type of glass to be used. The amount of lead present in the glass affects the quality of laser engraving as it retains the heat from the laser and may cause the glass to fracture. Cast glasses which have less lead content and have a homogeneous structure are more suitable for laser engraving. Crystal glasses are not a good choice because they have higher lead content. Still, if you want to create that frost looks on a crystal, you need to go through some trial tests. Perfect etching depends on the composition and quality of any glass.
2. Lower dots per inch (DPI)
To create an even look without any roughness on the glass, use a lower resolution. For example, using 300 DPI will give a better result as it engraves the dots farther away from each other.
3. Speed
The evenness of the engraving depends upon the structure of the glass. For instance, the engraved area in a glass bottle may look unevenly frosted because bottles have soft and hard spots. Engraved flat glass objects, on the other hand, have overall consistent hardness. So, the trick is to engrave glass at medium speed with high power.
4. Masking
Though masking trick is rarely used, it can reduce the heat, which creates that uneven look on glass. A thin, wet sheet of newspaper or paper towel is used in the masking process to cover the engraving area.
5. Dish Soap
Another trick to dissipate the laser heat is applying a thin coat of liquid dish soap over the area that will be engraved.
6. Jarvis Dithering
Jarvis dithering is the answer if you want to create a smooth, high-resolution image effect in less time.
7. Polishing
Once you have finally engraved your glass item, polish it with a ScotchBrite pad to remove any glass shards produced by the laser engraving machine. So, follow these tricks to laser etch glass with confidence and perfection.
