The motions required for engraving text onto products from jewelry to cell phones offer unique challenges in motion control. Artesà, in Barcelona, Spain, has developed a machine capable of mimicking the craftsmanship of hand engraving. The company’s machine uses a Galil DMC-2143 4-axis motion controller to guide the precise movements.

“The Artesà machine reproduces a high quality ‘hand like’ engraving. With the help of the Galil motion controller it can reproduce engravings identically,” said Leondardo Di Benedetto, the Artesà machine developer. “The hand engraving work of an artisan consists of a downward and upward movement with the chisel each time a cut is made in the surface of the object being engraved. The engraved line has a curvilinear or open polygonal trajectory in the vertical plane achieved with non-rotating cutting tools, which give the brightness and beauty characteristic of these
engravings.”

A Galil DMC-2143 4-axis motion controller enables
a machine to minic the precise movements of hand engraving.

The machine consists of a table with a bed frame that firmly holds the material to be engraved. Just above the table is the spindle-mounted, engraving tool head that includes a laser pointer and three carbide inserts with 35°, 90° and 135° corner cutting edges. A DMC-2143 four-axis Ethernet motion controller controls the complex and precise X, Y and Z movements of the tool head with carbide inserts. An SDM-20240 step drive controls the four stepper motors.

In addition to the three degrees of freedom, the DMC-2143 also controls the critical PT (line depth) and SV (vector tracing) axes. The PT axis gradually moves the cutting tool downward on a vertical plane so it can cut into the material to a desired depth doing the descending part of the curve, and then upward to the material surface cutting the ascending part of the curve. The SV axis manages the 360º motion of the cutting tool, ensuring the cutting edge always faces in the pre-programmed direction to effectively trace the vector being engraved and do so with a positioning accuracy of 0.1 mm/300 mm (0.004 in./12 in.) that is repeatable to 0.02 mm (0.0008 in.), under no-load conditions.

Galil Motion Control, Inc.
www.galilmc.com

Artesa
www.artesa-nc.com