Steel Field Plaques: Fiber Etching 304SS
Let’s do some fiber etching on some custom 304 stainless steel field plaques at CNCROi.com!
For this specific job, we used 10 ga 304 stainless steel, with a #4 surfaced brushed finish and while we are at it, four quarter inch holes, one in each corner, for easy fixation on-site.
The protective coating on the stainless steel is to prevent scratches, though CNCROi.com also has some internal capabilities to also remove surface scratches as well, they will happen regardless.
Stainless steel field plaques look amazing even with nothing on them, but CNCROi.com is going to surface etch almost the entire area with the design file provided by the customer.
CNCROi.com has made lots of custom metal signage through the years.
You’ll notice that there was no addition of chemicals or etching agents added to the surface, CNCROi.com just cleans the surface and throws these stainless steel field plaques right into the machine to be etched, that’s the power of fiber etching.
Though fiber etching is an incredibly slow process, especially for something of this scale, the results are incredibly durable and permanent, they will not fade, crack or peel over time.
What you see as black is etched and tempered into the stainless steel, so if anything is to wear out, it would be the area NOT etched by CNCROi.com‘s fiber laser… and how often do you see stainless steel worn down to begin with? Never!
Throughout the production of these stainless steel field plaques, you have to realize that you never see the laser but only the results, as it’s invisible to both the cameras and the naked eye.
Just about anything can be fiber etched onto stainless steel.
Fiber laser etching is an interesting process as it’s only light that’s creating the results, there are no chemicals applied to the stainless steel field plaques before production or after in order to achieve the results you see in these videos and photos at CNCROi.com.
When it comes to fiber laser etching stainless steel, regardless of the grade or thickness, the results will be the same, even with other types of metal, though the contrast will be different and require paint filling or other processes to show contrast like anodizing aluminium.
What’s really special about stainless steel is that no matter what environment it finds itself in, it completely matches the surroundings it will find itself in as there is some reflectivity built into the material.
Custom stainless steel memorials are also a wonderful use of this technology.
That’s why taking videos and photos of stainless steel production is so difficult, even just looking at these photos, you can see any change in angle gives the custom stainless steel field plaques a totally different look and feel.
As to the spec requirements you may or may not have for your particular project, CNCROi.com can offer you absolute customization, from the thickness of the metal to the shape and hole placement and sizing, every aspect of what you need done, from the etching to the physical plaque itself can be made to order in any volume you require.
As this stainless steel field plaques project was made-up of two plaques, once the first one was done in the laser, the second was loaded-up and production on that one began almost right away, the time it takes to do these is incredibly slow, so these were very late nights or early mornings where I had to babysit the project while it was occurring.
When it comes to etching, CNCROi.com can also perform deep etching into stainless steel.
Like the first, the fiber etching happens seamlessly, the process is the same, just the design file was different as these will be stacked on above the other.
Fiber laser etching is fiber laser etching though, no matter what was being etched into these stainless steel field plaques, the same attention to detail and quality was achieved, machines don’t need a coffee break and never get bored no matter how long a project takes to be complete at CNCROi.com.
Whether the font used was extremely small or very big, the laser isn’t affected, but if there are large gaps in the writing, the laser isn’t speeding-up to the next position, it just goes slowly up and down until the stainless steel field plaques are finished their fiber etching journey.
Making custom grills is only part of our business, of course, if you wanted the grill etched afterwards, that’s permanent as well, meaning the heat from the laser won’t affect it.
For this specific project, there isn’t really that much overall surface density etched into the stainless steel field plaques, so warping was never really an issue, we’ve done full coverage plaques at CNCROi.com and for those, the 10 ga used for this job wouldn’t be enough, it would be too prone to bending under the heat of the fiber laser.
You can now see the finished fiber laser etched stainless steel field plaques in all their glory after being cleaned-up from the soot created during the process, these look amazing!
You can see how all the letters are sharp, defined and there is no staggering or misplaced etchings, the precision of CNCROi.com‘s fiber laser machine is astounding!
Here’s one of my earlier videos filmed years ago showing me fiber etching another project.
For this specific job, any deviation from the design file would have been readily apparent, but everything is straight, square and on-point on this stainless steel field plaques project.
Notice how these stainless steel field plaques blend perfectly in the shop! It will be the same on-site once installed.
Need custom stainless steel field plaques? Contact CNCROi.com right now!