Sandblasting Engraving Process
(MUST USE THIS PROCESS FOR ENGRAVING CUSTOM LOGOS AND CUSTOM FONT STYLES)
Sand blasting is the process of combining an abrasive media with air and forcibly propelling it in a fine stream onto a masked surface to create an abrasion on the unmasked surface area. Combined with the use of a masked area and the application of the stencil (pattern or image) on the surface you can etch almost any surface.
Sand Blasting provides the most versatile engraving solution available and at very low cost compared to other engraving processes. You can engrave almost anything, custom artwork, logos, company logos, also great for text with hundreds of font styles to choose from or you can engrave your custom font. So, get creative!! You ready have no limitations.
A Time Consuming Process
The Sandblasting Process starts with your custom artwork, logo image or font style you like to use for your engraving project. If engraving a logo or custom image it starts by cleaning up your image, making sure it is not pixilated and is in a solid black and white format, no grayscale, the black area is the engraved area with the white area being masked and left un-engraved. Once the process is complete, we create a stencil that will get applied to each piece and then removing the engraved area from the stencil.
This part of the process will take up most of the time, areas around the engraved area will get masked and covered as to prevent overspray. Once the stencil is applied and the engraved area is removed you are ready for the blaster. The technician will sandblast each piece making sure not to create any overspray and most importantly, not burning through the stencil. From here, each piece is removed from the blaster and to the clean-up area where the stencil is removed, the glass is clean and inspected for quality of the engraving and overspray. Once approved it goes to shipping and packing where the utmost precaution is taken in packing your order, so it arrives to you in one piece and undamaged. Hopefully another satisfied customer, if not, please let us know.
It provides a far superior result than any other glass engraving process available. You get very fine detail work and sharp crisp lines. It is by far superior to laser engraving methods which a) gives a duller finish with not as sharp line edges and b) does not like hi-led content crystal or cheap grade glass.
With sand blasting it does not matter about the quality of glass so much, you get exceptional results on any glass product right through to higher quality lead crystal. Comparing Sandblasting process to Laser engraving, Laser is a very light surface etching, has no depth or feel to the engraved area, closely compared to painted on or decorated and cannot be compared to sandblasting and quality and the depth that sandblasting will produce.
Another popular etching process is Laser engraving which is sometimes considered to be quicker than sandblasting process. The laser engraving process is more of a surface etching and has nowhere the engraved deep that sandblasting offers, which should be kept in mind when choosing which process to go with.
Sandblasting has a lengthy preparation time, with have to create, apply a stencil to each piece and then need to have the engraved area removed, etched in the blaster, then wash out process and clean up but in reality, they take about the same amount of time. Lasers need wet paper laid on glass to prevent chipping and so this needs to be cleaned up.
Lasers also take quite some time to do the etching compared to sand blasting seconds to etch the same area. So, in the wash of things the time taken is about the same.