Working with Encore EconoFlex Material

Working with Encore EconoFlex Material

Material – Engravers Express EconoFlex .025 thick plastic engraving material. This material is available in Brushed gold, silver and bronze. The core is made up of acrylic for easy cutting by lasers. The material can have 3M adhesive applied to the back of the material.

Application – Trophy Plates

Why Use EconoFlex?  When it comes to creating an engraving plate there are a number of steps involved. Aside from setting up the plates in CorelDraw and entering the text you have to engrave the plates, cut them out with a shear and then tape them. Note: some customers require either a scallop or a radius corner to help “spruce” up the plate. Using EconoFlex allows us to speed up our job for a number of reasons.

The “metal” top of the EconoFlex requires less power than black brass coated steel. This means that we can run our job at a faster speed even on lower power lasers

Because the thickness of the EconoFlex is only .025 a laser even one that is 25 watts can easily and quickly cut out the plates once the engraving is done. The material cuts very easy with no flaming because it is thin and also because the core of the material is acrylic.

Because the base colour is black the plate is easily read even when the text is small.

Because the laser can cut out the EconoFlex there is no need to just cut the material so that we get square corners. We can easily add a scallop or a radius corner. This can greatly increase the perceived value of the plate.

With the material having adhesive pre applied to the material once the plate has been cut out we can quickly peel the adhesive and stick it onto our award product.

How to create our multiple plates in CorelDraw

First of all we need to create a plate that is 3 by 1 in size – see Figure 1

Figure 1

Next we need to place in our text. For this example let us place in 3 lines as per figure 2. To center the text on the plate press the “P” key.

Figure 2

Next we need to cut out the rectangle box that will be our plate cut out. Select the rectangle tool in the toolbox as per figure 3.

Figure 3

Now draw the rectangle box inside our 1 by 3 plate. The rectangle will be our cutout for our box. This box is a vector line (hairline width) so it will signify to our laser that we want to cut it out. To accomplish this you need to left click your mouse and while holding it down drag from the top left hand corner to the bottom right hand corner. Do not worry that the rectangle is not exactly 1 by 3. Figure 4 shows the rectangle being drawn. The little rectangle box that is attached to the cursor indicates that the rectangle tool is active.

Figure 4

Now we need to make our rectangle exactly 1 by 3. There is a problem here and it is that CorelDraw will not allow us to go right to the edge of the page. We need to be within .005 thousandth of an inch of the edge of the page. For this reason we need to make our plate 2.990 by .990. If you need to make a plate that is exactly 1 by 3 than you will need to make your plate 3.010 by 1.010. This will allow you to make a plate that is the right size.

To make our engraving plate the proper size we need to select the rectangle with the pick tool. Now in our property bar we need to type in 2.990 by 0.990. Figure 5 – red box – shows us the location in the property bar.

Figure 5

Once we have resized the box we next need to center the box. Figure 5 – blue box- shows the numbers that need to be entered in for the box to be centered on the page. Once you are done entering in the number press the enter command.

Now that we have centered the box we need to place in a .15 inch fillet on each side of the rectangle. To open up the fillet/scallop/chamfer docker go to WINDOW | DOCKERS | FILLET SCALLOP CHAMFER. This will open up a docker on the right side of the window. Now select “Scallop” in the drop down box and .15 of an inch for the radius. Figure 6 shows us our settings.

Note: the fillet/scallop/chamfer feature is only available in Corel X3 and X4

Figure 6

Click on the apply button in the fillet/scallop/chamfer docker. Figure 7 shows our finished plate. Note: I have outlined the box in red to make it easier to see.

Figure 7

Once we have created our master plate we can send it to the laser machine. We can use a number of different techniques to create this multiple. For this exercise I will use the imposition layout command. This command is located in the print menu.

First we need to go to FILE | PRINT in CorelDraw. Figure 8 shows our print menu that comes up. Select your laser machine driver and then click on the “properties” button.

Figure 8

Once we are in our laser print driver software we need to set a couple of parameters. For this example I will be using a 12 by 24 plate size. I have set my settings for a 35 watt Epilog Helix. The raster setting is the marking part of the job while the vector setting is the cut out – see Figure 9. Once you have your settings inputted click the “ok” button and you are back in the main print screen as per figure 8.

Figure 9

To create our multiple plates using the “Imposition Command” we need to click on the “Layout” tab located at the top of the print menu. Figure 10 shows the layout tab opened. You need to click on the “Edit” button that is located at the bottom of the screen. I have outlined it in red.

Figure 10

Once you are in the imposition command your screen will look like figure 11. The first thing that we need to do is type in the number of columns that we need in our job. Our plate is 3 inches long and our multiple plate is 24 inches long. Thus we can get 8 columns (24 /3). Our plate height is 1 inch so we can get 12 rows (12 /1). So we need to enter in 8 by 12 for our columns and rows respectively – see the red box in figure 12. Once you have inputted the second value you can press enter.

Figure 11

Your screen will change to a number of plates on a 12 by 24. You will not be able to see the plate information at this point. To see the plate information click on the “Preview Template” button located next to the input boxes – see the red box in Figure 12.

Figure 12

Once you have clicked on the “template preview” button you will see all your plates copied to the 12 by 24. Figure 13 shows some of the plates that we have created.

Figure 13

Once you are done click on the “Check Mark” icon located at the top left hand corner – see Figure 14.

Figure 14

You will be brought back into the print dialogue box. Click “print” and send the job to your laser machine.

For more information on the imposition command visit www.engrave.ca

Cutting the EconoFlex with a Laser

The following instructions are listed here to help you in setting up your laser to cut the EconoFlex. For this example we will use an Epilog laser 25 watt mini. All powers and speeds will be based on this machine.

The most important thing that you can do when you are first working with this or any material is to practice. When it comes to working with this material you will need to “tune” your laser to mark the material properly and to cut the material just right. When I say cut the material just right I mean you need to use just enough power to go through the material. If you use too much power you will over cut the edge of the material and disfigure the material edge.

Determining the proper raster setting

When it comes to determining the proper raster power and speed setting most laser users will send a number of jobs over with different power and speed settings hoping to get the right power and speed. This is fine but in the end everyone gets mixed up. My suggestion is to draw a black rectangle and send it over to the machine with power and speed settings that are close to what is needed. Press the start key on your laser. As the machine is engraving adjust your power setting directly from your machine until you are actually not burning the material enough. Thus you are using to little power. Now increase the power until you are getting an acceptable burn. Increase the power a couple of percentage points to account for variations in power across the table. Figure 15 shows the black box created in CorelDraw.

Figure 15

Once you have the proper settings save the settings in your laser driver – see figure 16.

Figure 16

Fine tune your vector settings by adjusting your power till you just go through the material. I tend to like to have to snap it a bit when I am taking the material out

Now that we have the proper settings all we need to do is to send the job to the laser machine.

Take your 12 by 24 piece of EconoFlex and place it on your table preferably on the cutting table if you have no adhesive or on the normal table if your material has adhesive on it and you are just cutting through it. Figure 17 shows the material on taped down. I have placed the three sides under the rulers to hold them down. It is imperative that this material is flat. If it is not flat than your laser will not cut it properly.

Figure 17

Figure 18 shows the plates cut out on the table.

Figure 18

For your information the total job time was 31:23 minutes or 1 plate every 20 seconds. Impressive and definitely a time saver especially considering that it goes right on my award and requires no more processing (If I have adhesive on the material).