Metal machine tags engraving made to last, order online today!
One of our customers needed to replace their metal machine tags. We were able to quickly provide the best solution.
What was the problem the customer needed solving?
Client on phone: Do you make machine tags? I have this milling machine I am restoring, and the machine tags are worn, and I can hardy read them. Can you make new machine tags for me?
The current ones are brass with the infill paint type. The paint is all gone but the raised parts are all there to read. What sort of material could you make replacement ones from?
How did we help for the replacement metal machine tags?
Self-Inking Stamps: We can make machine tags from a variety of materials depending on a few factors.
- Interior or exterior.
- If there are abrasive situations around it, like a lot of cleaning maybe with chemicals or something brushing against it a lot.
- Whether it could get hot or cold.
- and what colours of material are required to suit the machine.
We can then discuss which material might suit your situation.
With our Trotec laser engraving machine we can engrave on metal tags and cut and engrave acrylic machine tags.
There are two layer acrylic sheets we can engrave through the top layer to expose the lower layer and with that you get the text, graphics and lines engraved out for reading.
See our wall plaques blog post from last month. These acrylics come in different thickness from as thin as a sticker complete with the adhesive backing already there, to 0.8mm, 1.6mm and 3.2mm thick.
There are both interior and exterior grades of acrylic for signs and tags.
Then there is anodised aluminium. These metal plates can be cut to size and have a painted surface. Our laser machine removes the painted surface exposing the metal behind.
The colours then are what paint finish is on the surface and the colour of the aluminium underneath.
Another option that works well is metal marking for stainless steel using Cermark.
In this process the laser machine fuses a ceramic paint, Cermark, which consists of traditional ceramic glazing material. With the addition of a thermal absorber to fuse this paint to the surface of the material.
This is a bit like glazing a pot in a furnace except way more efficient as only the small part is heated where necessary.
Self-Inking Stamps laser does this by precisely aiming the laser beam and bonds only those areas specified.
With this you can get some fine details onto metals and other surfaces. This is a very robust mark on the metal.
The ceramic paint when heated via laser beam leaves a black mark on the stainless steel.
What was the outcome for this metal machines tags solution?
After having a discussion around the different options for his machine tags stainless steel with the Cermark was chosen for this occasion.
Our client supplied the stainless steel plates in 1.5mm thickness, his local cut shop helped there.
Plus, a couple of spares for testing to get the application correct and physical alignment in the laser engraving machine. There are always oopsies and a spare is handy. Also photographs of the plates currently on the machine and the wording required.
With all that material we were then able to do all the graphic design for the processing file to engrave the machine tags. That was then sent back to check before we did anything.
Once approval was given, we did a test sample. That looked great, position needed to change a little and that is the purpose of a test piece for this sort of one-off work to be done.
Approval was given and the two machine tags were then laser marked.
Our client was happy with the result. He can now read the machine tag and select the correct settings for running the milling machine.
For cost involved in this sort of thing there are three parts:
- The material to be engraved
- Graphic design time, one of these plates took a lot of design time to set up. One off items can be done. For repeat work this graphic design work can then be spread over all the items to be engraved lowering the per unit cost.
- Laser engraving time.
If you are looking for machine tags, stainless steel marking or circuit board signs get in contact and we can see if we can help you.
Contact our machine tags design team for more information…
Please contact us, if you have any questions regarding available variants or further product information.
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