High Quality Laser Engraving
At Promotional Products Online, we pride ourselves on our high quality laser engraving. We have a large variety of promotional products available--many of which are imprinted using alternate methods better suited to those particular items; however, we strive provide the best level of customization for our aluminum products using laser engraving.
Benefits of Laser Engraving
There are many benefits to having your promotional products laser engraved. Foremost among them is that the engraving creates a permanent imprint in the item’s material. This means that your logo or promotional message will always be a part of the product. Compare this to screen printing where the artwork is applied superficially with a thin layer of pigmented ink. This can be desirable for some applications where color is needed, but the resulting imprint is more vulnerable to physical degradation. Screen printed inks can fade over time and chip or peel away from the base material. This is especially something to consider with keychains which will spend a significant amount of time with keys rubbing against them.
An additional characteristic of laser engraving is the capacity for fine detail. Lasers can achieve a level of resolution that is not possible with screen prints. Not only can laser engraving create lines just micrometers thin, but also can reproduce that same artwork accurately and exactly with every imprint. Screen printing with inks may result in blobs and smears if the printer is not careful and the screens can wear down or become clogged over time, resulting in inconsistent imprints of your artwork.
Since the lasers are computer controlled, the engraving is a direct translation of the digital artwork. This further increases accuracy and reduces the chance for imperfections or errors from an intermediary step. Because of this level of direct control, we are able to offer free setup of your custom engraving and can make corrections without additional costly preparation fees prior to production.
Another advantage to highlight with laser engraving is the rate of production. It is clean, quick, and efficient resulting in faster production times which means faster turn-around times. We offer a standard 3 day production time for most orders of engraved items so that you will have your customized promotional products in your hands, fast!
Compare these worn and aged carabiners. The screen print ink of the top carabiner has flaked off, while the laser engraving on the bottom carabiner is still sharp and legible.
About Our Lasers
There are several types of engraving lasers on the market today. The three main types that you may encounter are CO2 (gas) lasers, Crystal lasers, and Fiber lasers.
As the name implies, CO2 lasers use a carbon dioxide gas mixture that is then electrically stimulated to produce the beam. It is a popular type of laser with good efficiency capable of producing a beam wavelength of 10.6 micrometers. However, this type of laser is best suited to substrates such as wood, leather, plastics, stone, and glass.
Crystal lasers are a type of solid state lasers that use laser diode pulses carried by crystals to produce the beam. You will often see this type of laser abbreviated as Nd:YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet). These lasers have a wide variety applications in both medicine and manufacturing. Nd:YAG crystal lasers produce a finer beam wavelength of 1.064 micrometers. Drawbacks of crystal lasers include a large physical footprint, specific water-cooling requirements, shorter lamp life, and high maintenance and service schedules, among others.
We use fiber lasers to perform our engravings. Fiber has many benefits over crystal and gas lasers. They produce the same fine 1.064 micrometer wavelength optical beam with much lower power consumption, resulting in cleaner and faster engraving. They are very reliable with low maintenance requirements, which allows us to continually engrave your products with no unexpected down-time. We are confident that fiber lasers are absolutely the best tool for the job.
So as you can see, laser engraving is going to give you a superior promotional product and we use the best available lasers to create those items for you. This is something that you may not have considered in researching the various products online that would most suit your needs. We are happy to provide this high quality service to you and are eager to help you reach your promotional goals. Give us a call or use the contact form to get started with your order today!