Vinyl records have been in the market for years. It was a major source of music for the people of 20th century.

And after that, they were almost gone. However, with the advancement in the laser industry, laser engraving has been a versatile solution for many industries.

This article talks about the recent re-emergence of vinyl records because of laser engraving technology.

A little throwback to the history

Developed in the mid-1800s, Vinyl records were among the most dominant source of music till the 20th century. In 1990s the small size cassettes and CDs replaced these vinyl records.

The introduction of technology in the entertainment industry made people adopt new emerging things. However, these instruments were able to maintain their worth. With a large number of people still using vinyls to record their music.

With the introduction of engraving technology, these recorders have started coming back in trend. Numerous artists have started recording music in this format. In fact, according to current reports, vinyl sales are increasing year over year.

Additionally, Sony recently made an announcement that for the first time in 30 years they will be reopening the vinyl plant.

On the other hand, CNBC did a report on vinyl sales that stated that in 2016 total sale numbers for vinyl were 13 million. The highest number ever the company has had since 1991.

How this transformation became possible?

Laser Engraving in Vinyl Record:

In 2016 a company named Rebeat, located in Australia did a patent of the new method i.e. producing vinyl records using laser engraving. Later when they were able to increase their funding, they went on to reintroduce these records in the market.

Rebeat is calling these new records HD vinyl. And according to sources, these new records would have long playtime and better sound quality.

If you are looking to upgrade your laser machines with new parts you can look online for Bystronic spare parts or Prima spare parts for quality results.

Working:

The digital audio data from the device converts into an accurate image and represents it in a 3D inverted surface model for music. Further, it goes for mastering and size evaluation to prevent any unneeded gaps during printing.

It creates 3D images on ceramic plates. Whereas in traditional vinyl pressing, nickel stampers are useful instead of ceramics. 

But, they wear out faster compared to other ceramics and produce records that decrease the quality as stamping plates lose details.

In fact, Rebeat claimed that with the help of laser engraving along with ceramic plates, up to 10,000 records production is possible without any loss in quality.

Additionally, they even said that by replacing vinyl pressing with laser engraving they were able to reduce the manufacturing time by 60%.

Pro tip: All HD vinyl produced by Rebeat will be backwards compatible and will be playable on any standard turntable.

Oreo Records and Laser Engraving:

Another big news is from Oreo cookie company. According to reports from Digital Music News, oreo recently partnered with the company called Dimension Plus to create Oreos capable of playing on the special turntable.

The company engraves the grooves on the iconic cookies which in turn produces Oreo’s theme song in different music styles like Jazz, classical, electronic and Chinese pop music.

To upgrade your laser machines with new parts you can look online for Bystronic spare parts or Prima spare parts for quality results.

A few of the major reasons that define the longevity of the records:

1. Young collectors are having interests in collecting these records as it gives them a retro
2. feel.
3. The interest of baby boomers who grew up using them.
4. The audio quality of vinyl records renders the best results. Because they are the closest to the original format.
5. Additionally, engraved Vinyl records can be an art piece or autographs from their favorite artists.

Final Words:

Sometimes it may seem that technology is overpowering the world of music. However, Vinyl records and laser engraving can be the best example to overrule this type of statement. The collaboration between laser engraving and vinyl records is thriving in the industry and creates the need as it gives them the freedom of reliving those good old days again with a touch of technology.

Source: https://www.evernote.com/shard/s548/sh/b85b924a-e13d-4d3d-9168-69656a5ab9e5/7e07981b0edc3f185118656f93ed9957

Fabricators use laser machines for cutting or engraving their materials. But have you ever heard about using them in sign boards business?

When it comes to laser engraving or cutting, using it on sign boards will be no exception as all. They are one of the simplest and most used ways to share information and advertise. We often see them on the roads, our surroundings, outside of restaurants or shops, etc.

Their major aim is to provide people with the information they need to know. It costs a lot of hard work and efforts. To expand their capabilities, you can consider customizing them with Laser engraving machines. They can help sign board businesses in making creative and unique boards that yield results.

The sign shop owners aim to provide something unique to their customers. And Laser engraving machines can make it possible. Let’s see how it can help sign shop owners in growing their business and provide better customer service.

Being the sign shop owner, the first question pops up is that why you need laser in your business shop?

Here is a list of some of the amazing applications of signage shop:

• Custom wooden signage
• Indoor and outdoor signage
• Dog labels
• Office door signage
• Warning signs
• Product display signs
• Badges and plaques
• Acrylic signs

These are just a few of the applications of using the laser cutting machines. Let’s look over the advantages of using these machines.

1. Precision:

Laser machines are very well known for their precision. Laser’s narrow width cut makes it possible to cut the corners of any material of your sign boards.

2. Engrave Detailed Artwork:

The laser machines have the ability to engrave the material at 600dpi. This makes it possible to engrave the artwork with correct precision and make it look more real.

3. Polished Edges:

Laser machines produce fine-tuned polished edges. You do not need any other second process after this and did I tell you the best part, you do not need to face headache of cleaning the material after the completion of process.

4. Speed:

Laser machines cut down 50% of your time compared to old machines or other labor work. It becomes easy to cut multiple materials with the same file again.

Here are some of the things you must consider while purchasing a laser machine for the sign shop.

1. Size of Laser Machine:

Before starting a laser, engraving or cutting business it is necessary to know which type or size of material you are going to use. To know it more deeply, study the market and customer requirements. When there are a variety of machines available in the market knowing your requirements can solve half of your buying hurdles.

2. Customer Support:

It is extremely important to know which company provides better customer services. While purchasing the laser machine you need to consider this feature as you are a beginner in this field and you need someone to guide you with understanding the details of machine and using it. So, it is a smart choice to purchase a laser machine from the company which is in this business for a long time.

3. Laser Machine Accuracy:

Accuracy is one of the most important factors when purchasing laser machines. It includes quality of laser parts from different brands like Prima Parts and LVD strippit parts as well. Working with laser cutting or engraving you need to check the accuracy of the machine as this will be necessary even while engraving or cutting the materials.

Wrapping Up

These are the basic guidelines we ask our customers to follow while purchasing a laser machine. Did this article encourage you to use laser machines in your sign shop? Make sure to invest in quality laser parts like Prima Parts or LVD strippit parts for better results. Especially LVD strippit parts can come as a major benefit as this machine can provide your customers a unique experience. This helps you not only to showcase your creativity but also increase your customer base and leave a lasting impression of your brand.

For processing laser cuts with 0.25-inch to 4-kW laser, it can be a hurdle-less task for fabricators. Now when it comes to 12-kW or 15kW, they need high-powered fiber lasers.

And there are choices available in the market, but if you as a fabricator want to focus on thick metal cutting, only high-powered lasers are not the right choice. The 15-kW machines can do more tasks than cutting the thick material.

Overall, the major motive behind this laser technology is about decreasing process time in laser cutting. Let’s explore what these fiber lasers can do for a fabrication shop.

A Little Throwback to History

During the mid-2000s, high-powered laser cutting machines were a necessary tool for quick and efficient armor kits for US troop vehicles. After a few years with the debut of fiber laser technology, these giant machines were not in the trend anymore.

Why Fiber Laser Technology is a Hero

Fiber lasers produce a beam wavelength which is about 10 times shorter than the 10-micron beam wavelength with a CO2 resonator. It produces a higher power density which you add to the higher absorption rate will create a great cutting speed. This cutting speed outpaces that of a CO2 laser in less than 0.25 in.

It becomes easy for manufacturers to increase the power of these machine tools with the additional laser-producing modules, Amada laser parts, and Prima parts. That is the reason for the sudden surge in wattages. In fact, these systems can exceed 100KW in some instances.

Beam delivery systems cannot handle the power of 100-KW systems on their shop floors. Hence, each laser cutting system manufacturer is looking to produce a reliable cutting head which can deliver the fiber laser beam for an extended amount of time.

Recently, these machine tool developers are stepping into the production of cutting head optics which can modulate the beam size during cutting. Its development propelled fiber laser cutting machines from being a tool just for cutting thin sheet metal. When the cutting material gets thick, you need a wider beam to create kerf to remove the molten metal.

It is important for a company to look at the typical thickness range which makes up 80 percent of its work. Also, to make sure that your lasers are working fine, you need to install Amada laser parts and prima parts.

Here are the general rules to cut common metal such as steel, stainless steel, or aluminum with nitrogen:

• Up to 9 gauge—6 to 8 kW

• 0.25 to 0.75 in.—8 to 10 kW
• Over 0.75 in.—8 to 15 kW

Utilize the Material Exchange

The processing time on a fiber laser cutting machine is tied with the system’s ability to load sheets, unload cut parts, and skeletons. A fabricator does not gain any cycle time advantage if it has to wait for several times for the material movement. A lot of pallet changers are designed with CO2 lasers. It cuts slower rates compared to fiber lasers. They use hydraulics and can take 35 to 50 seconds to exchange a sheet.

The modern pallet changers rely on servo-driven technology. Here the automation is critical. When it comes to selecting pallet changer technology, fabricators should select one which can handle the thickest material they process.

Is High-powered Laser the right choice for you?

No, if your shop’s laser cutting workload is not expecting continuous growth. If it consumes only half of work shift, paying for a powerful laser to reduce the workload to a quarter of a shift won’t deliver a good return on investment.

If metal fabricators are maximizing their current laser cutting capacity, adding another shift, they can look at high-powered lasers. It is true when they use older laser technology. They can invest in a fast and efficient laser to reduce the number of laser operators needed.

Fiber laser cutting machines will grow in power if the cutting head and material handling can complement the power. You as a fabricator can take advantage of the power if you can feed these cutting machines for proper maintenance.

Automation has been a common factor in all the industries now. And the metal fabrication industry is just one of them. The common goals of a fabrication company include increased production speed and boosted capacity to meet the growing demand.

Can automation help you meet these requirements? Let’s find out.

Is Automation Right for Your Business?

It solely depends on your short-term and long-term needs. By applying laser automation, you get:

Speed: With automation in place, material loading speed accelerates up to 35%. 

Capacity: You can achieve the highest production results with your machine.

Consistency: With automated laser cutters, you can perform precisely and get everything (time between cycles, load and unload times) down.

Finding the Right Type

Loading/Unloading System: When you add such type of system with the existing machines, it enables them to function unattended for a longer period of time. You might see an increase in productivity by 2.8 times. It includes a single load and separates unload tables. It restricts you to one material type/thickness at a time, making it an ideal choice for batch productions where you require fewer changes.

Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS):

Such a system makes it possible to run a variety of material types and thicknesses without any assistance from an operator. FMS has multiple storage shelves that let you load materials into one or more laser cutting machines. These systems typically deliver a beam on-time of roughly 92% and 14.7 hours of cutting per day. They can be an ideal choice for small-batch productions and frequent material changes.

Your Initial Stage Configurations

The Types of Materials

With simple systems like the load/unload system, it uses a single table. With FMS systems, you can load a range of materials into different shelves.

The Number of Machines

A compact system can work well with the machines you already have. In the future, when you want to expand your business to a certain extent, a modular solution will be a more logical option. 

The key here is designing your system to handle a bit overcapacity. And you would not want to go overboard, as it might tie up too much operating capital.

The Considerations

Most systems have a maximum capacity of 1” sheet of the mild steel. You can design systems to run single sheets without using any transceiver which will give more flexibility. In case if you need parts automatically sorted, you can build some systems to cut parts from a skeleton, depositing them on a specific offload table or you can deposit them in a bin.

How would you like to control your automation system?

Load/Unload systems are typically simpler. They use a basic cell controller to load the program sequence-wise on your machine. An FMS will need a more sophisticated system which prioritizes tasks, manage inventories, provide data about the cuts, when, and more.

What type of material unloading system will you need?

There are so many options available which you can consider. It could be any of the following: fixed tables, scissor-lift tables, multiple offload tables, rail systems, and conveyors. Also, make sure you are using either Prima spare parts or Mitsubishi laser spare parts when converting to automated lasers.

The Challenges

Here are some of the challenges to keep an eye on:

• Labor: You will need highly skilled operators to monitor production if you want superior quality results.

• Morale: When your team supports the transition of production from manual to automation, it will help you become a greater success in the long run.

• Effects on Other Machines: If laser cutting is a bottleneck, it is important to make sure that operators and machines downstream are prepared to handle the increased production time, when your automated laser cutter is fully functional.

• Laser Parts: There are some medium quality parts available in the market which could seem like an economical choice but will hurt you in the long run. So, whenever doing the transition from manual to automation, make sure you are using Prima spare parts or Mitsubishi laser spare parts.

If you as a fabricator wish to accelerate the overall flow from automated laser cutting, it is important to choose the right laser machine with the right partner by your side to make this implementation a success for your business.

When looking to buy a CO2 laser machine, it is important to consider a number of primary attributes. One of the primary attributes that bifurcate the type of laser tube which machine uses is its laser source.  There are major two options including water-cooled glass tubes and air-cooled metal tubes. Let’s look at the differences between glass and metal laser tubes. 

Metal Laser Tubes

Metal laser tubes use radio frequency to fire a fast pulsing laser with quick repeatability. Most of the metal tubes use air cooling system excluding higher wattages. They perform the engraving process with ultra-fine detail as they have a smaller laser spot size. They have a longer life span of 10-12 years, given they have premium parts like bystronic parts or prima spare parts, before the need for the refurbishing of gas arises. Its turnaround time in some cases can be quite long.

Glass Laser Tubes

Glass laser tubes come at a lower cost. They produce laser with the direct current. It produces good-quality beams which work well for laser cutting. However, here are some of its drawbacks.

There are some safety issues as it operates with a water-cooling system. The DC power supply excite the CO2 gas in a glass laser tube. It needs high voltages for the operations. And combining such levels of voltage with a water-cooling system, it might create some safety hazards.

Glass tubes need water-cooled temperatures as it is a poor thermal conductor. Hence, in order to remove the heat from the system, it is important to keep water circulating. If there is no water-cooling system in place, a glass laser tube would overheat and become inoperable. It might increase your production cost. It also introduces other points which can come as your maintenance cost.

The DC process limits the rate at which the laser tube can work. While the laser engraving process is running in progress, it doesn’t fire in one continuous burst. Rather, it “pulses” while moving and working across the material. When DC-excited laser tubes work on the piece, they tend to pulsate less. It significantly reduces engraving speeds and lowers quality.

Plus, there will be concerns over the lifetime of DC-excited glass tubes if they don’t have premium parts like bystronic parts or prima spare parts. Glass is naturally a fragile element. After a period of time, DC-excitation process can bombard a tube’s optics and electrodes with ions. It increases the chance of deterioration over time. Most of them come with a 6-month warranty. At the time of system failures, you will have to purchase a brand-new laser tube, which will increase your costs and waste. 

Here’s the one-on-one comparison between two:

Cost: DC laser tubes are cheaper than metal tubes. This cost difference is a result of lower technology and manufacturing cost.

Cutting Performance: To be realistic, both laser tubes are appropriate at their place. However, because the RF lasers work on a pulse base, these materials show a slightly rough edge. With that difference, the quality of the final results is hardly noticeable to most of the users. 

Performance: Metal laser tubes generate a smaller spot size out of the output window of the laser. For high precision engraving, this smaller spot size would make a difference. There are various applications where this advantage would be clearly visible. 

Longevity: RF lasers last 4-5 times longer compared to DC lasers. Its longevity can help offset the initial higher cost of the RF laser. Due to its capacity of refilling, the process can be more expensive than the replacement cost of a new DC laser.

Comparing the overall results, both of these tubes are perfect at their own place. Understand their use cases, their making, their parts like bystronic parts, and choose which is more perfect for your business model.