Worlds Fastest Drinkware Engraving Systems

We have worked in drinkware decorating for many years and developed several unique solutions for high speed laser decorating metal, glass and ceramic drinkware. Typical cycle times from 10 to 60 seconds depending on the material and/or coating type and the size of the image. Most people use very slow moving plotter style lasers with a rotary unit that can only process one cup at a time, normally taking a few minutes each. One of the slowest aspects of that set up is having to rotate the cup during marking. We have a very special beam steering head that allows us to mark around 80% of the viewable curve of the cup without having to turn it by adjusting the focus dynamically during marking. With this feature one of our units is able to do the work of 5 to 10 plotter systems.

Dial Indexer

This is our standard drinkware unit. The system will engrave a cup then advance to the next position automatically. It is adjustable to work with a wide range of shapes and sizes. The indexer holds 9 cups at a time and will mark one then start marking the next cup once the first is done. It can be set to run 9 and stop for marked ones to be changed out or can keep running if an operator is manning the unit.

Single Cup 3D Head

For lower volume applications where you still need a fast marking time we have an adjustable drinkware fixture for one at a time marking. The fixture is easy to remove so you can laser a wide range of other items in the same system. This video shows use of the 3D marking head that lets you engrave without having to rotate the cup.

360 Degree Rotary

A rotary unit lets engrave full 360 degrees all the way around drinkware. The height of the rotary allows for enough clearance cups with handles. The rotary unit can be used with any laser type and can be removed when not needed. This is a 60 watt CO2 laser with 2D glavo scan head being used to remove a powder coat paint from a stainless steel cup.

Painted Metal Cups

By far the best laser to use for paint removal is CO2 wavelength. We offer two power level lasers depending on customer volume requirements. Fiber lasers do not work well on reds, yellows and other light color paints.

Laser Paint Removal Examples

Glass Engraving

We offer CO2 and UV lasers for glass engraving. UV lasers will give the best contrast and smoothness of mark results. We have developed very good CO2 laser parameters to also produce very good quality marks at fast speeds.

CO2 Laser on Glass

After engraving glass for many years we have developed very good settings to get smooth marks at fast speeds. If a customer is only engraving glass, we would use a 30 watt CO2 laser for the application. Higher power lasers tend to cause more chipping in the glass.

UV Laser on Glass

We offer UV lasers at several power levels. This is an example of a 3 watt UV laser but most people purchase a 12 watt that would be 4 times faster if they engraving glass drinkware in volume. You can also achieve engraving with depth in glass and crystal items with a UV laser similar to sand blasting at 3 to 5 times faster than the sandblasting process.

Glass Engraving Examples

Coffee Mug Engraving

We have developed a high power fiber laser system for depth engraving into ceramic coffee mugs. Due to the depth of the mark, you are only able to engrave on one side at a time without rotation or the engraving may look jittery. Engraving time for an image like this takes around 3 minutes.

Not Just for Cups and Glasses

You are not stuck only being able to mark drinkware with this system. Different interchangeable fixture tooling inserts like in this photo can be made to fit onto the dial so can change over to other items when not running cups. You can stop the dial and place other items manually into the system as well. The CO2 lasers are great for high speed wood engraving also. The marking area for flat items is up to 650 mm by 650 mm.

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