Hello. Up to now, we’ve only been able to mark metals with our CO2 lasers. Well that is about to change. ULS has come up with a new gadget which is a beam compressor which will allow us to actually engrave/mark on bare metal. Here is what I know: You replace the beam window with what looks like a bulkier beam window. There is another attachment (mirrors?) that goes on the carriage. That’s pretty much it. My understanding is that will tighten the beam thereby producing more heat at the focal point than before (>30% more efficient?). The results I have seen were done on a steel dog tag and a hammer’s head. The dog tag looked as good as anything I have seen marked. There was no real depth to it though. The hammer however, had a definite depth that you could see and feel. It looked pretty darn good.
Now the drawback I hear is that there is a shorter focal length than the standard machine - meaning it will mostly be useful on flat work and will quickly go out of focus on curved items. Further, the word is that you can engrave metal with as little as a 30-35 watt laser. Price will be about $2600 (cheaper than going with a new Yag, eh?). No info yet on whether it will be more efficient for vector cutting other materials, but if it does work ok, I may invest.
I don’t see anything on the ULS web site about it yet so it might still be in the beta phase, but maybe your local rep will have some info. Mine is still experimenting with their attachment, but I’ll at least get to see what they are doing.