Shipping: Across India, MOQ applicable.
Pricing: Rate starting at ₹ 10 per minute of laser machine time
Laser cutting on the other hand is when we use the same laser beam at a much higher power to cut the object through and through.
Laser engraving is a process where we use a tightly focused laser beam to etch a design on the surface of an object. This is also known as laser etching.
Think of a polished block of wood. When we fire a laser on it, we are essentially scratching its surface. This scratch could be superficial, removing only the polish on the top or a deeper gouge eating into the wood. Either ways, like with any scratch, a different color appears from beneath the surface.
Let us further assume that the block we just used is a white pine and the polish on top is of a dark brown color. Our laser scratch is going to appear white and in strong contrast to the surrounding brown paint. Now if the laser was fired in the shape of a logo or along the lines of a beautiful font to recreate a person’s name, we get a beautiful laser etched design on our object.
Unlike traditional printing methods, laser etching does not use inks or color to do its job. The process burns or engraves designs on various materials. The laser engraved effect looks extremely beautiful on wood, leather, cloth, plastics and even certain types of metals.
Laser cutting, as the term states, uses a laser to cut through different materials. We generally think of scissors or guillotine blades (like the photo slitters you see in stationery shops) or even die punches*, whenever we need to cut something. But these traditional tools just cannot cut very intricate designs. They might work for simple geometrical shapes like circles and polygons, but there is no way they can cut a curved font like this:
Happy New Year
Enter, laser cutting services and machines.
At Orchid Digitals, we upload complex designs like floral patterns, CAD designs of machines, etc. and we use our two high powered laser cutters to get the job done.
In case you are wondering, both these functions of laser engraving and laser cutting are performed by the same machine. The difference is in the degree or power of the laser that is deployed. More details on this can be found here.
* Die punching is where you first create a metal die in the shape that you need to cut out. You then push this metal die into the material to punch out the desired shape. Our everyday file punch is a perfect example of the die cutting process. We have 2 cylindrical tubes fixed at a set distance in the file punch. You press the punch through a sheet of papers to get the desired shape (round holes of 6 mm diameter in this case, set at a distance of 80 mm from each other).
As you no doubt figured out, creating dies is a time consuming and costly process. It only makes sense to fabricate a die when you need to punch out vast quantities (say thousands of the same design from a material).
Laser engraving can be done on just about any material that you can think of. Laser cutting too is possible with a whole lot of materials (with metal sheets as an exception). Here’s a comparison of materials in terms of the process being applied.
| Materials that have to be processed | Is laser engraving / etching possible on this material? | Is laser cutting possible on this material? |
|---|---|---|
| MDF – Medium Density Fiberboard | Yes | Yes |
| Acrylic | Yes | Yes |
| Cloth Fabric | Thick cloth preferred as thin material will burn through and through | Both thick and thin fabrics can be cut |
| Paper | Paper – thick card stock preferred as thin material will burn through and through | Paper – both thick and thin paper sheets can be cut |
| Wood | Yes wood can be easily engraved and very beautiful effects can be achieved Wood / MDF sheets upto 10 – 12 mm can be cut on laser machines. | Trying to cut wood more than a certain thickness needs a lot of laser power. The problem is, when we shoot a laser at high power on wood for longer periods, the material catches fire! Hence we restrict the thickness of the wood for cutting purposes. |
| Thin metallic foil, metallic sheets of paper or metal plated plastic | Yes. But please bring a small sample to check how the job turns out. | Yes. But please bring a small sample to check how the job turns out. |
| Laser ply / Laser engraving metallic sheets: This is a black plastic sheet with a beautiful metallic gold, silver or copper finish on top. It is widely used in the signage industry and for creating name plates | Yes. Laser ply can be engraved. We also stock some sheets of this material. Please check availability of the same before dropping in at our place. | Yes. Laser ply can be cut. We also stock some sheets of this material. Please check availability of the same before dropping in at our place. |
| Soft stones like marble used as paper weight for gifting purposes | Yes. Can be engraved. But results vary from material to material. Please run a sample job first. | Stone cannot be laser cut |
| Veneer – This is a thin sheet of very premium wood. It comes in a variety of textures. People use it for high end visiting cards | Polished veneer can be engraved and will look beautiful | Cutting veneer into different shapes is also possible |
As mentioned above, you can laser cut or engrave just about any material that you can think of.
People also bring in various objects like visiting card holders, key chains, pen stands, cups, machine panels, etc. for processing. Due to the very wide possibilities that laser engraving service opens up, there is no way we can predict or stock standard materials.
So at our laser cutting and routing division, the customer brings in the material or object that needs to be processed. We do stock stencil material, some types of standard acrylic and MDF.
Do give us a call before planning a job, to check if the material is readily available with us.
Just about any material can be laser cut or engraved. And our customers are extremely creative with the end applications as well. We have seen people process jaali patterns, birthday cake tags, akash kandil (sky lanterns used in Diwali and Christmas), models planes and buildings, embroidery patterns, lace for cushion covers and curtains, personalised rakhees, labels, number plates, name plates, stands for delicate jewellery like necklaces, etc.
Here is a pretty exhaustive (but not comprehensive) list of applications of the laser cutting and laser engraving industry:
Screen printers typically require jigs to print on objects like visiting card holders and wallets. And if the jobs runs into thousands of pieces, a jig holding the wallets in place while being printed upon, makes life easy for them. Engineering companies too, get a lot of these jigs laser cut from us.
Creating name plates out of golden and silver laser ply: The silver metallic plates that you generally see as direction boards in malls (think of the man / woman icon on doors of the rest rooms) are not really made of metal. We have a material called ‘laser ply’. This is a black sheet of plastic with a metallic coating on top. The metallic finish comes in finishes like silver, gold and copper.
When we laser etch these plates, the top coat burns off to reveal the black plastic beneath. This results in very beautiful and rich looking plates and direction boards. Another every-day item most people can never imagine to be a product of the laser etching service.
Fancy name plates: These are almost exclusively made of acrylic, wood, and metallic plates. We use laser engraving to etch names on wood. Individual letters on a nameplate are cut out of acrylic.
While we do not provide this service at Orchid Digitals, it is worth a mention in this list about laser engraving applications.
For making the best use of our laser engraving service, we require vector design files. These are line diagrams created using 2D design software such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW. We can also work with CAD files.
If you are planning to commission a laser etching or cutting job, it helps to understand what kind of file is needed to get the job executed properly. Lasers trace a path on the objects they are fired upon. This path can be a simple geometric shape or a highly complex design.
Either way, this line diagram follows a defined equation to create a precise path, and the laser follows this path during engraving or cutting. Read on to understand the types of files designers create.
Printers typically work with the following two kinds of files:
Here is a great article that explains these two file types in more detail: Vector vs Raster Graphics
Our laser machines are fitted with powerful 100–130 watt lasers. Each machine has a flat bed on which the objects are placed. The laser is mounted on a gantry-like mechanism that moves over the bed in both the X and Y directions. The laser beam is triggered, as per the instructions in the design file, when it passes over the object.
There are two main parameters that we control while operating the laser machine:
Our laser machines are rated for a maximum power of 100–130 watts. This is enough to cut through an inch-thick plank of wood. However, this rating only indicates the maximum power at which the lasers can be fired.
We vary the power setting based on the material that needs to be cut. In fact, our lasers can be set anywhere within a range of 10 watts to 130 watts.
Here’s a quick explanation of why this is necessary:
Now let us assume that, for the same job, we do not need the engraving to go too deep. In that case, we simply increase the speed at which the laser passes over the object.
While we have a general idea of the speed and power settings required for most materials, it sometimes takes a little trial and error to get laser engraving jobs just right. That is why it makes sense to try a couple of samples first before placing the final order through our laser cutting and engraving service.
We offer the following two types of services
1. Laser engraving
2. Laser cutting
Engraving is where we scratch or make a mark on the top surface of the material. And cutting involves cutting the material through and through.
You can process a wide variety of materials like paper, MDF (wood), plastic, polycarbonate, metal foils, cloth, leather acrylic, etc.
No, we do not stock the above materials. We offer processing services on the same. The clients bring in their own choice of media.
Laser engraving or cutting is charged at Rs.10.00 per minute of machine time. This means that if a job takes us 5 minutes to process, it will cost rupees 50.00 plus taxes.
Intricate designs, thicker media, or harder-to-cut materials require more time on the machine. And this impacts the overall cost.
Yes.
We use high-powered laser beams to process jobs at our end. And at times, there are chances of your material getting damaged. For example, the edges of some plastic sheets tend to melt. Or faint burn marks show up on some sheets of paper.
So before initiating the job, do run a small sample to check your material compatibility.
Laser machines work best with vector file formats. Please ensure that your artworks are created as vectors in software like CorelDraw, AI, etc.
The minimum billing amount is Rs.2000.00 plus taxes.
Yes. Online payments are accepted at Orchid Digitals. In fact we try to finish the entire job online. All you need to do is mail us your artwork/design file along with the requisite dimensions, material specifications, copies needed, etc.
After evaluating/understanding your project requirement we send across an estimate for the same. This estimate (in the form of a Proforma Invoice) will also contain an online paylink encoded in a QR code.
Scan the QR code to make the payments.
Once the funds are transferred, we process the job and the ship the same across to you.
Most laser processed jobs can be shipped/delivered anywhere in India.
Prices for both laser cutting and laser engraving services are the same. These are, in fact, based on the time it takes to cut or engrave a particular job. For example:
Hence the price for cutting or engraving any job is directly proportional to the amount of time it takes to finish that job.
At Orchid Digitals, we charge Rs.10.00 per minute of laser machine time.
To illustrate with an example: if it takes 30 seconds to cut a simple circle on a thick card paper, the cost of that job would be Rs. 5.00 (Rs.10 minute * ½ minute to complete the job).
Let us assume that another job calls for cutting a detailed stencil on the same card sheet. Now the machine takes 15 minutes to finish the cutting. So the cost of the job would be Rs. 150.00 (Rs.10 per minute * 15 minutes to complete the job).
So, unless you actually process the job once, getting an exact cost is difficult.
| Price for Laser cutting or Laser engraving service for a design |
|---|
| Rs.10/- per minute + 18% GST |
| Time is calculated from the moment the job is actually fired on the machine. Prepress for file setting or machine make ready is not included. |
Pricing Notes — Laser Engraving
Please Note
18% GST is applicable on the rates quoted.
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