3D Laser Engraving
THE PROCESS
Kern is well known in the laser industry for providing the most detailed 3D laser engraving system in the world! Kern’s 3D engraving technology has opened new avenues for artwork to be displayed on a variety of wood products. Designing 3D images takes some time but the end results will be breathtaking. The key to 3D laser engraving is to understand the software you are working with. You need to be able to shade your drawing in gray to give the depth desired in your image. The grayscale artwork below previews what a laser ready 3D image should look like. Kern’s KCAM laser software is one of the very few on the market which will accept true 8-bit or 256 different colors of gray for resolution. That means there are 256 different power levels from black to white, which correlates to the 256 different levels of gray between black and white.
There are many brands of software on the market that will allow you to design in 8-bit grayscale. Some of them include: CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. More advanced software includes: ArtCAM and Cimigrafi. If time does not permit the learning of the drawing software programming, artists are available to develop your files at a reasonable charge.
The Gantry Co. is one such company that has been providing the finest 3D grayscale graphics to engravers since 1994. Check into the Partners Program which allows access to all 3D files available with substantial cost savings. For more information please visit www.gantryco.com.
THE KERN ADVANTAGE
Kern’s array feature in our KCAM software will allow you to duplicate the 3D image across the entire x-axis. The laser engraver will engrave all of the files at once and save you time. For example, a 3D image five inches wide can be arrayed so that ten 3D images are engraved on a single pass. Our high speed engraving systems offer a superior combination of speed, laser power and state-of-the-art software which makes them the machine of choice for 3D engraving applications.
THE RESULTS
