How to engrave on leather and leatherette with a laser marker

[Zack00]

 

Fiber optic markers are not designed to work with organics. And leather is an organic material. Then how does the marker work on leather? The laser does not interact with the skin itself, but with the materials it is treated with - tannins, dyes.

Therefore, depending on the pre-treatment and processing of the leather, the quality and characteristics of the engraving will depend, as well as the power and speed settings of the machine.

The same leather, treated differently, when engraved will behave differently. In some cases, it may even shrink and catch fire. Also, how long the engraving lasts depends on this.

 

Engraving on leatherette

I do not recommend doing a deep engraving leatherette, because the upper layers will crumble and come off, so the product will quickly become unusable.

Let's take two identical covers of different colors.

The black one has deep engraving. And you can already see that these triangles will soon begin to come off.

And on the brown cover - set the power lower and the result is noticeably better.

Therefore, when processing leatherette is better to start with low power, although perhaps the color also played a role here, because black absorbs more heat.

 

Recommendations

An important nuance when engraving leather and leatherette - smoke and odor. If when engraving leather, it's going to smell like you're "burning a pig," then leatherette is often made of PVC. This is harmful, both to your health and to the laser marking machine itself.

When PVC burns, it releases hydrogen chloride, a poisonous gas with a pungent odor. It can be deadly to inhale. And on skin and mucous membranes, it can cause severe burns. For the machine, it is fraught with the fact that it will quickly become covered with rust and, accordingly, more quickly fail.

To prevent this from happening, you need to run an exhaust hood, to protect your hands, eyes, lungs and your machine.