Professional Engraving Systems

Serpentine Engrave Order Reduces Traversing  and Total Engraving Time, Increasing Your Productivity
August 4, 2008

- Cary Johnston, Software Development Manager

Below is a typical multiple plate job which would be run on a Xenetech Rotary Engraver.
This particular job is for a piece of material measuring 16x25 inches and containing as
many 1x3 name badges as the material will hold.

 

This image below represents the order the plates will be engraved. You can follow the
plate to plate engraving order by following the red arrow pathway…

 

Notice that plates 1 through 8 are engraved first, then plates 9 through 16, then plates 17
through 24, etc. Each row is engraved from left to right all the way through the job.
This can be inefficient, because at the end of each row the engraving cutter must traverse
the material size all the way back to start the next row. There is no engraving during this
traverse move, so it is just wasted time.

In other words, the operation is fairly efficient while engraving plates 1 through 8, but
once plate 8 is finished the cutter must make a traverse move all the way to the left to
position itself to engrave plate 9.

Xenetech now offers the ability to engrave your plate rows in a serpentine fashion. The
switch for this is in the F1 to engraver dialog as shown below…

 

 

 

Notice the section which is here highlighted by a red box. Right under the “Reverse Plate
Engrave Order” switch there is now a “Serpentine Plate Engrave Order” switch. Simply
check it like in the image below…

Now when you fire the job out you will see an engraving pattern like shown in the
following image…

 

Notice that now there is a much more efficient engraving order. After plates 1 through 8
are engraved, now the cutter drops immediately to plate 16 and engraves plates 16
through 9. The cutter then drops immediately to plate 17 and engraves plates 17 through
24, etc.

The rows are now alternating from left to right, to right to left, and then back to left to
right, all the way through every row on the plate. This eliminates wasted traversing
moves and therefore increases your productivity.
So try choosing the new Serpentine Engrave Order option and let your Xenetech Rotary
Engraver be the snake in the grass you knew it could be!

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