Mar 23 2009
Types of Engraver (Manual)
(Context: I’ve been involved in the trophy and engraving industry for around three years. I make no claim to know it all, or even know a lot. When I first became involved I searched the Internet looking for information that I’d find useful in helping me understand the industry – I didn’t find much. This is my small part in hoping that the next person in my shoes can find something useful to them. If I’ve gotten something wrong, please leave a comment so I can correct it.)
Manual Engraver:
A manual engraver lets you lay out the letters you want to engrave in a tray. The letters are made up of grooves in brass. A manual engraver uses a probe that runs through this groove. Attached, through a series of lever arms, is a diamond tip that repeats anything the probe does on the surface of what you’re engraving.
The process requires you to manually set the pressure that the diamond tip exerts on your engraving surface. That means you need to keep steady pressure to get a good consistent result. One trap is that if you aren’t careful the probe can jump out of the groove resulting in the diamond tip also going where it wasn’t intended. Time for a re-do.
The nice thing about a manual engraver is that you do have control over the engrave process, each and every letter, and you can easily apply added pressure if needed or reduce it if not needed. This can offer more control than some computerised engravers. The trade-off for this is that you are relatively restricted in terms of font faces and the additional flourishes (such as logos or clip-art graphics).
In the short time I’ve been involved in the trophy and engraving industry I’ve learned that this engrave has heaps of potential capabilities that I just haven’t explored. For me, this is because the computerised engravers usually fill my needs for more complex engraving.
I have found that the biggest limitation on a manual engraver is the inability to automate and scale. Each engrave is a manual process where you need to be actively using the engraver. Changing an engraving plate is a process that requires some thought and attention to ensure that the next engrave will be in the right position. Changing the test you’re engraving means changing the layout of your letters – something that can be a lengthy process for a larger engraving job.
Ultimately, it was these sorts of factors that encouraged us to very quickly enter the world of computerised engraving. In the next article in this series I’ll look at computerised rotary engravers.
