304 Stainless Steel Retirement Plaque
Today CNCROi.com will make a custom 304 stainless steel retirement plaque, one of many to come!
Retirement is a significant milestone in one’s life that deserves recognition and a custom steel retirement plaque, regardless of the size or material(s), made by CNCROi.com.
A steel retirement plaque is a meaningful and lasting way to honor the achievements and contributions of an individual who has dedicated their career to a company or organization.
You can see this on our wall next to the plasma cutter at our shop, it has been exposed to dust, extreme UV light and endless vibrations and guess what, still looks exactly fantastic as the day I made it.
Steel is a durable and long-lasting material that represents strength, resilience, and endurance, as such, a steel retirement plaque is a symbol of the retiree’s hard work, dedication, and commitment to the company or organization.
For this specific project, we used 12 ga 304 stainless steel and plasma cut the blank from which CNCROi.com will then fiber laser etch the surface permanently with the information provided by the customer.
Of course, we can mix and match materials as well, although these are custom floor vents, the same processes can be employed for whatever purpose you need CNCROi.com to fulfill for you.
A custom steel retirement plaque serves as a reminder of the retiree’s accomplishments and the impact they have made on the company or organization and it is a way to honor their years of service and to thank them for their commitment and dedication.
Using steel that’s custom cut to the spec you need by CNCROi.com and then fiber laser etched permanently serves as a perpetual record of the retiree’s career and the impact they have had on the company or organization.
The reason for making this custom steel retirement plaque out of stainless rather than mild is because we don’t want to have this rusting on the wall, we could have also made this using 316 stainless steel or even more exotic metals but for this application, this was plenty.
You have endless creative options when it comes to etching, here’s a memorial plaque we made a while back using the same process and steel specs as this steel retirement plaque but with a very different mix of images and graphics.
A custom steel retirement plaque can be personalized with the retiree’s name, job title, and years of service along with customized messages that reflect the personality and interests of the retiree, literally anything you can imagine can be permanently etched onto the stainless steel (in this case) by CNCROi.com.
After plasma cutting the blank at CNCROi.com, the next step was making the four holes, one in each corner, using our industrial drill press, this will provide the holes needed to screw this to the wall!
In addition to our gantry system for etching stainless steel, CNCROi.com also employs a galvo system as well for smaller items or for DEEP ETCHING.
Don’t forget that a custom steel retirement plaque can also be used as a way to promote the company or organization, featuring the company or organization’s logo or branding can be a powerful marketing tool, so it is very much a multi-purpose device.
Fiber laser etching stainless steel is a very slow and methodical process, the heat from the laser is tempering the steel and “scratching” it at the same time, producing the contrast you see, no inks, dyes or printing of any type is performed, as such, what you see is permanently part of the steel.
The vast majority of our projects using fiber laser etching at CNCROi.com are actually industrial in purpose, I just happen to enjoy making permanent items like this custom steel retirement plaque using the same methods that the big boys enjoy, which is why you don’t often see something like this being made for “consumers”.
When it comes to etching stainless steel, you can go as simple or as complex as you want, we can do it all for you and ship it right to your door.
The bright light you see in these photos and the video is actually just the result of heating the surface of the stainless steel, for this application, we can’t go much thinner than 1/8″ material because the heat will bend the plate, causing inconsistencies in the final etching by CNCROi.com, which is something we do not want!
When it comes to fiber etching metal, you have to realize that nothing is added or removed from the surface of the metal, as such, even if this is bent after the fact, like run over by a tank, the etching will not peel off, it’s as part of the steel as any other part of the steel and requires an angle grinder to wear the entire surface of the steel to remove.
CNCROi.com has extensive experience etching stainless steel, what you see on this website is just a glimpse of what I can show as most of our work is covered by NDAs and for various other reasons, no documentation is publicly available of our work.
There are many ways to transform metal into something incredibly unique by CNCROi.com.
As you saw with this fabrication of the custom steel retirement plaque, every aspect can be customized including the shape, size, thickness of the blank and yes, we can also bend it if needed so it can be cylindrical in shape.
When you look at the etching happening on this stainless steel retirement plaque, you’ll notice how precise our laser is, not one pixel —> tempered steel is out of place and what blows my mind every time isn’t that fact, but that if I needed to over it another time, it would yet again, be etched at EXACTLY the same place.
CNCROi.com does a lot more than just retirement plaques with our stainless steel and plasma cutter combination.
Now that the etching is complete, you can see there is a bit of soot on the surface of the steel retirement plaque, this is quickly cleaned-up, it’s actually particles of stainless steel that are modified from the heating process of the fiber laser etching.
After cleaning this up, you can see just how beautiful and unique this custom steel retirement plaque is, everything is precisely where it should be, the finish is spotless and the contrast permanent.
I really get a lot of personal satisfaction making these custom plaques, it’s such a great mix of technology and process to create something that will outlast human civilization!
Need a custom steel plaque? Contact CNCROi.com right now!