Rotary Engraving

What is Rotary Engraving

Rotary engraving is the process of using a rotating cutter in a motor powered spindle to cut into material in order to create engraved grooves which form raised characters or graphics.  We often fill the engraved areas with a coloured paint to provide a contrast to the metal, we can use rotary engraving to leave raised letters or images for a “cast” look or to create Braille print.

How it works.

CNC rotary engraving systems use a computer controlled rotating cutting tool in a motorised spindle to remove surface material  The rotating cutting tool, or cutter, cuts into the material surface to a predetermined depth in order to produce a groove of the same shape and size as the tool.  The rate of the cutter rotation is known as the cutting speed and the lateral movement is the feed rate.  Both the cutting speed and the feed rate have a profound effect on the quality of the finished cut.  In general, softer material may have higher cutting speeds and feed rates and can be engraved in a single pass.  Harder materials require lower cutting speeds and feed rates may need to be engraved in two passes.  The first pass will remove most of the material and the second pass will create a clean cut.

Rotary engraving can be used on a wide variety of material including acrylics, soft plastics, rigid plastics (phenolic), soft metals (brass and aluminium) and harder metals (steel and stainless steel).

Capabilities

Brunel Engraving has 2 cylindrical CNC engraving machines and seven Vision computer controlled two dimensional flat bed machines which are the most reliable machines on the market today:

* Two machines with bed sizes of 405 x 305mm, both with high speed spindles capable of 100K RPM.
* Four machines with bed sizes of 610 x 405mm, two with standard spindles, two with a high speed spindles capable of 100K RPM.
* One machine with a bed size of 1220 x 610mm with a high speed spindle capable of 100K RPM.
* 1 x Newinghall cylindrical engraver, maximum dia of 400mm.
* 1 x Gravograph IS400 maximum dia of 370mm.