What Is Laser Engraving and What Are the Main Differences from Silk Screen Printing?

author: YITECH

2025-02-20

Do you know what is laser engraving? And what are the main differences from silk screen printing? That is what we are going to talk about today.

Do you know what is laser engraving1? And what are the main differences from silk screen printing? That is what we are going to talk about today.

Laser engraving is a common surface treatment process that can be applied to many materials, such as metal, plastic, resin, bamboo and wood products, plexiglass, metal plates, stone, crystal, leather, etc.

Laser engraving is similar to screen printing and silk screen printing, both of which print words or patterns on products, but in comparison, laser engraving has the advantages of fast marking speed, beautiful image marking, high resolution, wear resistance, wide range, high speed, low cost, and strong anti-counterfeiting.

01. Principle

Laser engraving is to use the light energy of the laser beam to make the surface material of the product undergo chemical and physical changes to carve out traces, or to burn part of the material through light energy to show the various patterns, texts, textures, etc. that need to be etched.

According to the different engraving methods, it can be divided into dot matrix engraving and vector engraving.

02. Classification of laser engraving

According to the engraving method, it can be divided into dot matrix engraving and vector cutting.
Dot engraving: similar to high-definition dot printing; the laser head swings left and right, engraving a line composed of a series of dots each time, and then the laser head moves up and down at the same time to engrave multiple lines, finally forming a full-page image or text.

Vector engraving: It is carried out on the outer contour line of the image and text. This mode is usually used for traditional cutting on materials such as wood, paper, and acrylic, and can also be used for marking on the surface of various materials.

03. The difference between laser engraving and silk screen printing.

The products produced by laser engraving and silk screen printing have similar visual effects, but in fact there are still big differences.

① For laser engraved products, the fonts and patterns are translucent; for silk-screen printed products, they are opaque;
② For laser engraved products, the color of the fonts and patterns is the color of the material, and the background color is the color of the ink; silk-screen printed products are just the opposite of laser engraved products;

③ In terms of wear resistance, laser engraving is higher than silk-screen printing;
④ The two processes use different principles. Laser engraving uses the principle of optical etching, while silk-screen printing uses the principle of physics to make the ink stick to it;
⑤ The prices are different, but the price is still determined by the difficulty of the fonts and patterns.

Laser engraving is widely used in the fields of digital products, smart terminals, smart homes, automobiles, watches, gifts, cultural and creative industries, etc. Yitai Electronic Technologies Co., Ltd. also provides surface treatment services such as laser engraving. If you are need it, please contact us.

DongGuan YiTai Electronic Technologies Co.,Ltd

DongGuan YiTai Electronic Technologies Co.,Ltd is a manufacturing service provider located in Dongguan, China.

YiTai specialized in CNC turning machining and sheet metal fabrication mainly. As a member of Hung Mou Group, we focus on the overseas marketing development. And based on our parent company’s manufacturing capability and resources, YiTai also expended machining services such as die casting, injection molding, aluminum profile extrusion, 3D printing, which are committed to providing customers with one-stop purchasing services and experience.

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