Laser Engraving Iphone/Ipod back

Snapmaker Original
1

Hi all,
I was thinking that the laser was a perfect solution for engraving the back of phones like Iphone or Ipod.
It is plastic (I guess) looking like metal so I was thinking to engrave them.

But surprisingly, even at 100%, the laser do not do anything to the surface (case).

Anyone have an idea ?
I tried at 70% end 100% laser power.

Thanks !

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2

I think the light is reflecting too much. It can be metalized plastic (electro coated) but I donā€™t know since I never had an iPhone/Pad.

3

@doug ā€¦ any idea ?

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4

Hi @CedricLCF

I have not tried to do such a thing to an iPhone. I guess you could treat the case like Acetate and paint it with a black whiteboard pen and see if that works,

Doug

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5

@doug, good idea but iā€™m afraid it will not looks very clean for customers ā€¦

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6

try one and see; after you wipe off the black ink.

I just did a Google search with ā€œlaser etch iPhoneā€ and received a number of hits, including YouTube videosā€¦ try rummaging around such things.

Doug

7

@doug
Totally agree with you and wll definetely try.

Of course I google it and looks ike nobody had issue to laser engrave iphone but semms that with snapmaker, it is not as easy as other lasers ā€¦

Thanks

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8

trial and error my friend. Are you using the original 200mw laser or the new 1600mw laser?

9

how do I know the power of my laser ?

Thanks for your help !!

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10

The first Snapmakers were shipped with a 200mw laser. The latest Snapmakers have the 1600mw laser. If you look at the photo for the laser unit in the Snapmaker Store you will see that it has 1600mw written on the front of the laser case see https://store.snapmaker.com/product/laser-module

Doug
image

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11

ok !

Mine do not have this note.
It is just written ā€œlaser engravingā€.

Iā€™m surprise because I order it a month ago so it is quite a new snapmaker ā€¦

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12

@CedricLCF

Contact @Rainie and ask about this

I believe the more powerful laser will meet your needs.

Take care and have a great week.

Doug

13

Thanks a lot my friend.

Indeed it looks like the laser is not powerfull enough.

See you around :wink:

1 Like
14

We are not informed about the performance of Your laser, but there will be no significant differences as far as the reflection of the beam is concerned.

15

My laser is a 200mw instead of the new 1600 mw.
As discussed with doug, the back of the iphone do not create a real full reflection.
Furthermore there is a lot of people using laser engraving on iphone so i guess it is more an issue of laser power than reflection.

Thanks

16

Hi all,
Iā€™m back with some more details experiences.

I tried to put black ink, or black board maker on the case in order to engrave it but with no clear results as you can see on the picture .
(I tried to engrave the case with the letter ā€œNā€)

Iā€™m still wondering if it is a matter of laser power or more material issue ā€¦

IMG_0163
IMG_01632448Ɨ3264 1.47 MB

Cheers

17

I have a similar issue, nothing comes out of laser on the back of the mobile. Tried with all settings with 200 and 1600 module. Anyone had luck to do ?

18

If you are getting ā€œfadedā€ results like CedricLCF, I could suggest multiple passes (with a cleanup + new coat of black ink).

The tricky part would be to keep phone in the exact same location between passes.

I donā€™t have a iPhone to try, but I will try to see if there are any other thing I could engrave which has similar material