How Do Laser Beams Engrave Things? (slow motion) | WIRED

A fiber laser can carve super intricate designs into any metal in just 10 seconds. The laser is getting so hot the metal is vaporizing away, yet it does nothing to our skin. As we play the video back and watch these lasers in slow motion, Alexander Sellite of "Laser Everything" breaks down everything we need to know about fiber lasers and how they function.
See more of Alex here: / lasereverything
Still haven’t subscribed to WIRED on KZbin? ►► wrd.cm/15fP7B7
Listen to the Get WIRED podcast ►► link.chtbl.com...
Want more WIRED? Get the magazine ►► subscribe.wire...
Follow WIRED:
Instagram ►► / wired
Twitter ►► / wired
Facebook ►► / wired
Get more incredible stories on science and tech with our daily newsletter: wrd.cm/DailyYT
Also, check out the free WIRED channel on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV.
ABOUT WIRED
WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. Through thought-provoking stories and videos, WIRED explores the future of business, innovation, and culture.

[@LaserEverything]

Thank you guys so much for coming by the studio. It was an honor to be able to work with you and show off this amazing technology!

[@sweebos]

Thanks for sharing! ✌️

[@LaserEverything]

@@sweebos We had a lot of fun just glad I got the opportunity!

[@muddimanmustang]

Awesome! Congrats

[@markbreidenbaugh6033]

Dude! So excited that they invited you on for this episode! Great job presenting.

[@LaserEverything]

@@markbreidenbaugh6033 I did my best lol

[@shize9ine]

If 180fps ‘slow motion’ is the best your hardware can do, why not rent a phantom? 1:42 - B roll plasma cutter, not laser.

[@AmasikoCustomDesigns]

I’m a member of the Laser Everything community and you won’t find a better place to learn and share your knowledge with other laser businesses owners. Great KZbin channel and social media accounts.

[@mrs.lasereverything]

We have a great social media manager 👍

[@Yirannn]

Yeah he's so good with the information, people unsatisfying by free content, ask for more. Idk this society so bad.

[@3k2p6]

How can you call 180fps slow motions... Oh my god, bring the slow mo guys to film this.

[@Pood369]

I was thinking the same thing!

[@DrorF]

At least they didn't do the dramatic 'slowing down effect' 😁

[@InappropriateShorts]

@@DrorF bullet time was revolutionary. Show some gd respect.

[@Reptex_cs]

Lol exactly, i came for the slowmo😒

[@7H07sAndH03s]

It wouldn’t be much different except the surface getting engraved a little slowly. It would look cool but then thats it. The light is very fast and you wont see it.

[@khalilahd.]

This is actually incredible. Crazy what technology can do these days 😅

[@practicallyprinz]

You'll be amazed to hear there are 3d applications, Cutters, glass engravers, plastic etc

[@willhouse]

That color engraving is *bonkers*

[@jimvanderlinde]

Laser everything is the best place to learn about this kinda laser

[@nannerpuss9430]

No waaaaay Alex? Didnt expect to see you on Wired!

[@LaserEverything]

It's been a wild ride dude haha.

[@sweebos]

This was amazing to see! I knew a tiny bit about this process, but this was informative and incredibly entertaining.

[@justayoutuber1906]

It is called a fiber laser because the laser light is both generated and delivered by a fiber optic cable.

[@regalblack1503]

Technology has come very far

[@Nickanew]

Thanks to this video I'm able to do my job as a laser engraver better. Thank you wired!

[@mac23806]

That is revolutionary technology

[@justayoutuber1906]

or evolutionary

[@SinkLikeStone]

I would love to hear more about how iron can turn blueish or red/brown/blackish depends on the oxygen level react to the laser. ;)

[@nesthi]

I'll say it. The yellow sparks are cool looking!🙌

[@justayoutuber1906]

that's racist, man

[@masterix4021]

Can't you also color titanium with the same techinque as steel? Has far as I have seen, the titanium oxide layer changes color depending on heat as well.

[@LaserEverything]

Yes that's true, we haven't experimented with it too much so I figured I'd keep it simple here as it acts more as an intro to lasers but you're absolutely right.

[@ellislaserengraving]

That is so awesome. I can't wait to learn so much more to get my business going. I have found the right place to learn everything about galvo lasers.

[@LaserEverything]

Looking forward to seeing you over at LE :D

[@mbkballer1]

Lazers are so cool!

[@FarceeTheFire]

There's actually *many* aluminum alloys, aluminum may be an element, but you'd be incredibly hard pressed to find yourself using raw aluminum.

[@FiddleSticks800]

Great video.

[@krish6099]

@0:31 so with 60W power 1070nm wavelength doesnt interact with organic material? i have heard bad stories in laser safety classes, could you please explain a bit more? Thanks.

[@LaserEverything]

There are obviously tons of exceptions like color, density, temperature, but in general - organic materials have a very poor absorption rate at this wavelength. That said this short IR is very dangerous to your eyesight so you should always wear safety glasses when working around these machines. Especially non-enclosed class 4 lasers. We get into it more on the channel but the long and short of it is it isn't going to burn the crap out of you like a UV or CO2 laser would if you catch your hand between the beam and the object.

[@SuperSlimshady1]

OMG IM SO MIND BLOWN!!! I KNEW THIS WAS GONNA BE SOMETHING SCIENTIFIC BUT NEVER ANYTHING LIKE THIS!!! LIKE U SAY AT THE END IT FEELS LIKE MAGIC!

[@x9x9x9x9x9]

I had no idea you could do color that's wild

[@ash.ab.5575]

great info

[@AfrozAlam-gd1vp]

3:13 is the metal moving because of laser hitting or because lase is making the metal hot?

[@LaserEverything]

The metal is getting hot and warping! :P

[@temmerson]

The mirrors move as fast as 10,000 milli meters per second! No wait, the mirrors move as fast as 10,000,000,000 nano meters per second! (Also known as 10m per second, but doesn’t sound as good)

[@LanceLarsen]

What brand of laser was that? Can it cut metal as well as engrave it? Love the video - super well done!

[@LaserEverything]

This was the 60w M7 by SFX, amazing machine, just wrapped the review of it on our channel :)

[@thoobonator]

Good informative video. It would have been nice with an explanation to why the colour actually appears. I assume it is because steel has a colour change pattern that it will go through when it reaches different temperatures.

[@zaprodk]

Exactly!

[@LeeDeez]

I have one of them CNC plasma cutters at my job and they’re so much fun to use

[@justayoutuber1906]

those

[@SwissTanuki]

So Mr. Bond wasn't going to die and Goldfinger just made that up? So evil...

[@LaserEverything]

I think Goldfinger was using a visible light laser in the megawatt range so Bond was definitely in quite a bit of trouble. All comes down to wavelength and wattage!

[@OfficialSamuelC]

Always weird seeing the word ablation, as someone with cardiac issues whos has cardiac ablation, meaning I had a procedure where went through my femoral artery in my leg (inside the artery) all the way up to the inside of my heart chambers and ablated lots of parts of my heart (burning/scarring parts of my heart muscle to try alter or permanent damage certain electrical pathways across the heart). My cardiac problem means my resting heart rate 24/7 is tachycardic. Averaging 150bpm up to 250bpm. Day and night, awake or asleep. Nothing works to slow it, no medication, no Adenosine. Not even shocking my heart over and over fixes it (and this hurts, they do it whilst you’re awake with a little bit of sedation!).

[@LaserEverything]

Wish you well friend, sorry to hear your story - please take care.

[@elysiaxox]

Great video 😮😊

[@rayrous8229]

Way cool! Can you do one on extreme ultraviolet lasers?

[@LaserEverything]

We have a ton of UV lasers over at LE :P

[@henrychan720]

@@LaserEverything I think he meant those used in ASML's EUV photolithography machines used to make 3nm chips.

[@zaprodk]

@@henrychan720 yeah that's not usable as the energy level on those is very low and won't ablate or really heat anything.

[@saadisave]

@@henrychan720 Those are only good for etching nanoscale transistors on silicon

[@robertrichardapril]

Video is fine, but if you mention slow motion, I'd suggest getting appreciable slow motion footage if possible. I'm pretty sure everyone would have thoroughly enjoyed something better than 120-180 fps. Anyways, have a nice day!

[@Amonimus]

Still, why doesn't it hurt organic material and why iron gives variying color?

[@drewlop]

This is cool but I'm disappointed they didn't explain how the color is created. "Steel is ferrous," but iron is not an inherently colorful material. I'm sure it's some kind of thin film interference effect, but the fact that they didn't mention that and just said "it's ferrous!" as if that would be enlightening is kinda lame. Better to just be like "how the color works is out of scope for this video."

[@yoyofargo]

my jeans have laser engraved fold marks lmao

[@AmericanArgonaut]

I think I found a new business…

[@LaserEverything]

Definitely a fun one to be a part of :D

[@danielhertz7266]

How thin and deep can the laser etch without added air flow or material removal? Let's say i DO WANT to cut a certain even depth into the material.

[@Gkolbas]

Bent plates - priceless

[@zrothesensei6981]

Gavin and Dan would have done a better job. The angles for the Slow Mo shots are horrible and 180 FPS is not fast enough. Great concept tho

[@LaserEverything]

Feel free to give them our contact info lol

[@janetf23]

It's probably a good thing that I'm not rich; I would totally impulse buy one of these and not have a clue how to use it, even after Alex has explained it to me. Better I should just watch, so thanks for this! 👍✌

[@LaserEverything]

If you ever change your mind lol we'll be around! They're super fun!

[@fralinsandfriends]

That's awesome. It looks like a lot of fun. 😁😁👋👋💖💖

[@divingquokka]

0:28 Isn't that a plasma cutter?

[@Engravcut]

Can the coloring be done with any fiber marker? If So please send the file so I can show my colleges

[@kauanmossonzaianz3552]

Awesome

[@aditiverma7895]

Can I use this video of yours for educational purpose

[@BarrierSecurity]

Ears with eyelets: No thanks!

[@Phil-D83]

You can buy low power ones that run on 3d printers. They are rather dangerous as they can blind you without proper eye protection. The smoke is aweful.

[@sgct89]

No one knows lasers like Styropyro

[@laseranddiy-cq5jf]

wow, loved it. thanks for making this video. My XTOOL D1 Pro is way slower haha!

[@sgct89]

You guys should reach out to the channel Styropyro 😅

[@Klarpimier]

Before watching the video: you blast a metal and it gets hot and melts

[@AlecInstant]

Wait then what is anodized aluminum? That comes in tons of colors. Time for another KZbin search 😂 I wonder how long I’ll be up tonight

[@AlecInstant]

Ah ok, we just gotta grow an oxide layer and then and a dye and lock it in or somthin. But I think I get it enough. It’s more like a rust then a burn

[@ArielLothlorien]

Where is the slowmo? This was a really interesting idea but didn't play out well

[@Yagyaansh]

Where can i buy this machine?

[@RockyLai-ch8mz]

Hello dear are you looking for a laser machine?

[@XxXenosxX]

I don’t need a new expensive hobby, I don’t need a new expensive hobby, I don’t… 🙉🙉🙈

[@LaserEverything]

You do!

[@abrahamwondafrash7549]

pure scifi....

[@nickwheeler1652]

Didn't really focus on slow motion

[@malleusmaleficarum6004]

They use lasers to print expiration dates on food containers, dont they?

[@amandeep4392]

Laser bheem ale question da answer A option aoo g

[@tombirney7276]

Transmyocardial Laser Revascularization? UR opinion for improving a pt's chance of not having another cardio/vascular event.

[@1.4142]

10,000 mm/s= 10 m/s

[@SevenDeMagnus]

Cool

[@fantaguyrealx]

Whoever's reading this, i pray that whatever you're going through gets better and whatever you're struggling with or worrying about is going to be fine and that everyone has a fantastic day! Amen

[@yumicintaku]

Thank You!

[@qorthex]

Thanks? But you're everywhere

[@RotaryMarx]

Not christian but thank you. I hope i will have a better engineering journey

[@Camilia5615]

I needed this, thank you so much. Be blessed💞

[@khalilahd.]

Thanks ❤

[@anuuuujgggb]

Wow!!

[@rayawira]

Very disappointed with the video. Thought they're gonna use super high frame rate camera in order to record how the laser creates those images in super slow motion.

[@anasyusuf1607]

🏇💨💨💨💨🔥🔥🔥

[@Hobypyrocom]

so many things said in the video are so wrong...

[@mahuob]

dese no one say first anymore i'm First BTW

[@dongchen7940]

I think you need to figure out all those terminology like fiber-laser, galvo, etc... before making such a type of video, so that it won't be full of misconception in your video.

[@AkPK369]

👨‍🎨👩‍🎨🎨🖌️🖍️ Tattoo artist better than this

[@ThePazuzu]

Some of those were actually plasma beam machines and not fiber lasers.

[@DisposableSupervillainHenchman]

This guy’s speech impediment is enraging. Sounds like that meatball Sean Astin giving a science lesson.

[@mrs.lasereverything]

Hope your day gets better friend

[@AmasikoCustomDesigns]

Do you need a hug bruh?