Engrave Your Metals Permanently By Metal Etching

Getting your name, brand or any important happening engraved into a piece of metal is a true symbol of permanence. Getting your initials engraved in a locket, carving out the name of your loved ones on a bracelet or getting your company’s name carved on the keys of your office are almost equivalent to getting a tattoo but on a metal piece. This is done by a process called metal etching. It is becoming very common nowadays because people like more and more customized products. They don’t just want to spend money on a piece of metal but they want to buy something that they call as ‘their own’.

Metal etching is a process of engraving a design, be it text, numbers or an illustration, on a piece of metal. This was originally done by using very strong acid to melt the metal and then informing was carved into the metals. Metal etching has been prevalent since the beginning of time. It was done on coins, jewelry, monuments and many other things. However now the process has become a lot easier because of the introduction of technology.  Instead of acid, laser is used to carve out information which makes the process a lot faster and simpler.  The labor that was used for metal etching has now been to reduce to almost nothing. All we need nowadays are some advanced laser machines and one digital command to manufacture bulks of products one after the other. The quality is not compromised and a lot of products are manufactured with so much ease. 

Laser engraving has so many applications. It is used to carve into stone, plastics, natural materials, metal, glass and the end product is super finished and well put together. The finished products can be classified into jewelry, pieces of fine art and in a lot of industrial appliances like cylinders and many more.

The combination of laser engraving and metal etching leads to the making of very interesting products. It is not only used for extremely important things like carving out coins or carving out names for identity purposes. It is also used for carving out extremely creative pieces of art. Especially with the introduction of laser engraving into metal etching, beautiful laser cut signs are created for various purposes. These are customized signs depicting anything you want in any font, size and color made for decorative purposes.

These laser cut signs can be used as name and number plates for your house, for names of the bride and groom on the wedding day, decorative pieces of art for the walls of your room and many more. Not only this, people nowadays also like to etch their names on their tools. So now whenever someone borrows your hammer, your name on it will be a quick reminder for them to return it back to you. No matter how beautiful these laser cut signs might look, they can get a little expensive sometimes. There are tutorials on YouTube that teach you to do a DIY engraving on metals with some things available at your home.

Different Ways to Cut Metals

There are different types of metals and each one has a different set of properties. There is a different way of cutting them too. Depending on its application and the nature of job where it needs to be used based on their design, shape, thickness, size and nature of the metallic materials there can be different ways to cut the metal precisely. This is so that the finished product is of the best quality. There are different devices that are used to measure and cut the metals. Here are some different ways to cut different metals.


Grinding –

In this process a wheel grinder is used to cut metals. It is an abrasive machining process and it is quite common in the cement and mineral processing factories and plants. When a certain piece needs to be cut accurately in a specific shape and aspect then grinding is used. Any type of metal which has a smooth surface can easily be cut with an abrasive wheel easily through this process.

Laser -

This is one of the best ways to cut metals especially laser cut stainless steel products are highly in demand these days such as railings, stainless steel gates, grills etc. Laser cutters can achieve products of high precision, exact shape and size. A high concentrated beam of light is diminished through a small point by an extremely high temperature to cut the metals accurately. Laser cutting can help in making intricate designs on the metals with minimum wastage of the metals. An industrial metal laser cutter is used to cut piping materials and flat-sheet material too.

Water Jet –

Another way to cut metal is using the water jet process. In this method of cutting metal abrasives are mixed with water and this mixture is applied with great force on the surface of a metal to erode it. Water jet way of cutting metal is quite fast and costs less too compared to laser cutting. The quality achieved is good and clean.

Turning –

In this process a very sharp cutting tool is used on the metal surface and is rolled briskly with the help of other machines such as lathe, this process is known as turning. Layers of metal are removed so that a desired design and size is attained.

Plasma –

Plasma is quite a modern technique of cutting metals. The finished product has the quality as that of a laser metal cutter.  A plasma torch that ejects a jet of hot plasma or inert gas is used to cut the metals. Some common metals that are cut with this process are aluminium, steel, copper, aluminium, stainless steel etc.

Burning or Welding –

Welding is a process when the surface of the metal at a certain temperature so that it gets soft and breaks on the surface on the line that has been veined over the metal surface.

Drilling –

When a hole is needed on a piece of metal then force and rotation got from a drilling machine is used to make holes. A drilling machine can vary in sizes depending on the side and thickness of the metal.