Laser Ink for Metals

Hello, this is my first time to try making colors on metal's surface with laser machine.

At this time I'm going to try five different metals with black metal ink.

Can it be remove after lasering? Let's see.

Preparing five different of metals for testing laser ink,copper, brass, aluminum, stainless steel and normal steel.

Use wire wool to clean up the metals' surface.

And then rinse the surfaces with water.

After that, dry the surfaces with towels.

Laser ink information:

Brand: LaserInk starter kit #1 black for metals

Proportion: 1 g powder with 2 ml solvent

Mix them evenly in the bottle with spoon or brush, make sure the blend isn't solidification before you use.

Evenly coat blend on the metals' surfaces (PS:The layer thickness will effect the laser depth of metals' surface.)

Wait 3 to 5 minutes, when the blends color gets from black to gray, the mean it's dry, can continue next.

Laser machine information:

Brand: Epilog mini 40 watt

Set up the laser parameters. (Raster, speed is 5%, power is 100%.)

Remove the blend of metals' surface with wire wool.

Recycle the dry powder into the bottle, they can be used again.

Rinse the whole surfaces, let it be clean and dry.

The whole process has done, I try to use my nail to scratch the color, no remove anymore, looks very good!

Let's continue do the test about same powder with different solvent proportions.

Left: 1 g powder and 2 ml solvent (Result: Adhesion is best.)

Middle: 1 g powder and 3 ml solvent (Result: Adhesion is neutral between left one and right one. )

Right: 1 g power and 4 ml solvent (Result: Adhesion is general, Laser ink is shedding obviously more or less after scrubbing with brush.)

Note:

After coating, the thickness are little difference between 0.005-0.01 mm