Universal Laser Systems PLS3.60, Safety, Installation, Operation, And Basic Maintenance Manual

Page: 106 / 116

ADVANCED SYSTEM OPERATION
Section 9-12
Definitions
CONTRAST: Adjusts the difference between the unengraved and engraved areas in the high
density part of the graphic or where there is the most concentration of graphic pixels (in between
the dotted lines) as the following diagram illustrates:
Universal Laser Systems, Inc.
Within this effective area, using too little CONTRAST may cause some parts of the letters to
appear thin, faint, fuzzy, or even non-existent. Having too much CONTRAST will cause the
effective area to appear thick, bold, or over powered.
DEFINITION: Adjusts the difference between low density and the high density part of the graphic.
The low density part of the graphic can be considered such as the ascenders and descenders of
text, or single pixels that may be horizontally spaced far from other pixels, or the start of the
graphic in the direction of the raster stroke. Refer to the following diagram:
Universal Laser Systems, Inc.
Setting this parameter too low may cause the effective part of the graphic to appear thin, faint,
fuzzy, or non-existent. Too high of a parameter will cause these objects to appear thicker, bolder,
or more powered than the high density areas of the graphic.
DENSITY: Adjusts the difference between the entire unengraved and engraved areas. If the
parameter is too high, then the entire engraved image may appear thick, bold or over powered.
Too low of a setting may cause the image to appear thin and pixels or parts of characters may
disappear altogether. The opposite effect would occur on inverted images such as white text on a
black background.
TUNING:
Adjusts the image so that the pixels vertically line up with each other during the left and
right, bi-directional raster strokes, will line up properly. A misadjusted TUNING value will cause
the image to appear double-imaged or inadvertently bolder than normal. A typical non-Image
Enhanced TUNING value can be from -4 up to 0, whereas a typical Image Enhanced TUNING
value generally averages 4. Yes, TUNING will be different if you have Image
Enhancements enabled or disabled. Saving the printer driver settings will also save the TUNING
value.
Procedure
The following procedure assumes that you have some experience working with the laser system
and you have a general idea of the Power, Speed, PPI, and Image Density settings that you
intend to use for the chosen application material.
In the following example, we will be engraving painted brass choosing 100% speed for good
throughput, and Image Density 5 for good quality.
Step 1: Establish the nominal power setting.
In your graphics software, create a series of 5 rectangles that are about ¼ inch high and 6 inches
wide as in the following diagram: