Before you Start Laser Engraving and Cutting Wood
Choosing the power of the CNC Engraving Laser - 2 W, 6 W or 15 W?
When buying a blue laser for cutting and engraving on wood, you o
ften need to decide about its power. Less powerful, 2 W laser is not only cheaper but also allows for more precision laser engraving on wood. The more expensive 6-watt laser can engrave images with large pixels, and can be used where 2-watt version cannot, like cutting hard leather, or marking stainless steel or titanium. 2 W laser can work with a size of the spot of light as small as 0.1 mm, which enables wood engraving of very small details.
However, such a level of precision requires a machine that is not only very accurate but also has rigidity suitable for operating speeds that guarantee high repeatability of the trace after the head changes its direction of movement. Also, less powerful CNC laser needs more time to complete engraving, because high-resolution images are made of a larger number of thinner lines, and enlarging the spot size (pixel) means a slower movement of the head.
6 W laser head is less precise, but in exchange enables faster operation thanks to larger pixel size. For example, it can quickly produce a 30x30 cm image built from half-millimeter pixels. The effective resolution is 600x600 pixels (360 thousand points in total) while working with 0.1 mm pixel would result in a 9kk pixel image (3000x3000). This is a massive difference, especially in terms of engraving time, while the larger pixel size (and lower resolution) will be noticeable only from a distance closer than 1-2 meters.
15 W laser head is our flagship product. It is a three-laser-diodes laser head that uses precision-grade lenses and has the highest optical power density. PLH3D-15W has the same beam spot size as the PLH3D-6W-XF+ with the uSpot Lens Upgrade, but three times as high power density.
For laser cutting wood and wood-based materials, choose the laser head with the highest available power.
