You may be like many of our customers looking to expand your use of fiber lasers or looking for an industrial engraving solution for your wood products. Either way, you want to find the best machine for the job at hand.
However, do not use fiber lasers to mark or engrave wood. We do not recommend fiber lasers for wood applications for reasons that will be told to you shortly.
2 reasons not to engrave wood with a fiber laser
1. Using a fiber laser on wood is essentially like focusing light through a concave lens to start a fire.
The 1064nm wavelength of fiber lasers partially transmits through organic structures such as wood based on their shorter wavelengths. However, when the beam enters the wood, its absorption is uncontrollable. This reaction is caused by differences in the wood material, heat builds up, and eventually the wood will ignite.
As wood is a flammable substance, fire can spread quickly, which creates an extremely dangerous situation.
This is definitely not the result you want.
There is another key reason why fiber lasers and wood should not be mixed.
2. The marks on wood produced by fiber lasers are not so clear and easy to read.
The goal of any marking or engraving project is to create a human or machine readable mark. However, the uncontrolled absorption of the beam creates uncontrolled marks on the wood, which makes the marks on the wood look jagged, charred in places and barely legible in others. This may not be the markup effect you want.
Be sure to keep this equation in mind:
Fiber laser + wood = hazardous conditions and poor marking.
When used properly, fiber lasers can be efficient machines capable of creating precise, high-quality marks. We have numerous fiber laser videos showing examples of successful laser marking. However, when we use it improperly, it can also have bad consequences. Therefore, when we want to mark objects of different materials, we must consider the characteristics of the material itself and the characteristics of the laser machine, and choose the correct laser marking machine application.
So we don't use fiber laser marking machine to mark wood, what should we use?
The Best Way to Laser Engrave Wood
We offer three main types of laser marking machines as options for customers in need. When the fiber laser marking machine can not achieve the desired results, we have another type of industrial laser engraving machine to choose - CO2 laser marking machine, which can engrave clean, readable on wood and other organic materials Marking, which reduces the consumables and maintenance costs normally associated with inkjet or labels, is more cost-effective.
CO2 laser marking machines can successfully engrave clear and undamaged logos, serial numbers, 1D or 2D barcodes and more on wood without risk of fire.
The benefits of using a CO2 laser marker include:
Clean and controlled marking on wood
Compact and cost-effective part identification method upgrade solution
Capable of producing high quality marks at high speed
Helps operations save costs and reduce cycle times
Many of our customers have successfully used CO2 lasers to add branding or traceability information to their wood products, including crafts, wooden bowls, floors, pallets, barrels, and furniture.
