Laser engraving as a business - is it worth starting

Investments: from 180,000 rubles

Payback: from 2-3 months

Before the holidays, there is a need for a necessary and useful gift for a friend, family member, boyfriend or girlfriend. Laser engraving on a gift is a great way to creatively decorate it, make it unique and preserve its memory for many years. In addition, a gift decorated in this way will be exclusive, because you can depict anything, from a signature to a complex drawing, and getting such a thing is much more pleasant.

Recently, engraving has appeared on phones, tablets and other gadgets. This is beautiful and allows you to protect them from theft, because no one will buy an obviously stolen thing. This business idea is not difficult to implement. The main thing is to draw up a detailed business plan.

Business Concept

Laser engraving as a business is relevant due to a large-scale sales market and promising development. It is clear that earning occurs through laser engraving of various things.

Clients can be absolutely everything, from a simple worker to a large entrepreneur.

What is required for implementation?

First of all - the official registration of an individual entrepreneur or an individual. Then - search for a room where the devices will be located and the engraving process will go. Devices can be ordinary manual and automatic programmable. The former are inexpensive, while purchasing the latter, you will have to pay a lot of money. So, about the working equipment. Let's make a reservation right away: it must be of high quality and reliable, because its replacement or repair will hit the finances hard. Search for employees, but you can do it yourself, although at first it is not easy. When choosing employees, consider their perseverance, patience, and conscientiousness. Then you can contact an advertising agency in order to disseminate information about your company.

Step-by-step startup instructions

From the above, let us single out a few main points that need to be completed when starting a business. Not all are required - you can do without advertising and hired labor. Here are the main ones:

As advanced technologies develop, so does the advertising business. This is due to the fact that advertising is aimed at a large audience, and standard methods lose their effectiveness.

One of the ways to create a great experience for both clients and colleagues is by donating little things. All of these items are laser engraved with the name of the donor. Now such a business is quite widespread and highly popular. This leads to the fact that many people think to open it. But is it worth doing?

General information on the issue

The engraving is created by the action of the beam on the work material being processed. The light flux passes through an optical fiber and a system of mirrors. The process takes place due to the fact that the upper layers of the material are destroyed. In addition to processing, laser engraving is also possible on glass. At the same time, good clarity is ensured, which always transfers only the best pattern to the material.

Some of the brightest examples of use are working with glass bottles, watches, mugs and other components. Often the process is carried out on jewelry as well. Moreover, many cups, orders and medals are created in this way. But, at the same time, it is quite difficult to open such a business.

Now there are a huge number of competitors, each of which is bringing something new. That is why, it is worth considering the main advantages and disadvantages of this type of business, so as not to burn out in the future.

Pros of starting a laser engraving business

When it comes to the advantages of starting such a business, the following should be noted among them:

This is a fresh idea for working with clothes and any fabric. This service will most often be in demand among young people. In addition, now one of the new procedures is keyboard engraving. Most often, this procedure is used when equipment is transported from abroad, and the layout needs to be changed to Russian.
You can work with any materials. Laser engraving will always find its wide consumer.
Business pays off quickly when it comes to making seals. If the competition is small, then you can fully recoup your business plan in a short time.
Now laser engraving is used even for car modeling. In practice, various patterns are applied, which will characterize something peculiar.
Such a business includes several types of services at once, each of which will be different from each other. This is why you can define either a narrow spectrum or a wide one.
To work, you need to provide yourself with a minimum of technology, as well as a minimum of knowledge. For this, mastering only standard programs that are used in everyday life is suitable.
Now each of the machines has a high performance, which allows you to process materials with high precision and in short periods of time.
The process is independent of the person. Processing is carried out by a computer program, where no operator involvement is required. This suggests that material damage due to human factors will not occur.
If customers have already tried using some other types of processing, then they understand that laser engraving is exactly the option that will be better in quality than all others.

As you can see, there are a lot of advantages of such a procedure. But it is worth considering also the disadvantages in order to see in more detail the process of opening such a business.

Cons of starting a laser engraving business

There are quite a few options from the “buy / sell” heading, but today we will talk about something else, namely: how you can create your own business using modern technology.

How to start an engraving business?

In order to open your own laser engraving business you need:

If you have financial problems and absolutely no funds to start a business, but the idea itself seems very attractive, then you can share it with a person who could invest in the project (Igor Yankovsky: If you have an idea - tell us about it ).

Well, when everything is in order with finances, then we start on our own.

You can start your business right at home, but do not forget that lasers and engravers generate combustion products when working, which should be removed with ventilation, especially when working with plastics. It is also important to remember to follow the safety rules.

The laser engraver is the heart and main part of the business.

Until recently, laser engravers were large and cumbersome, until Endurance created a whole line of compact diode solid-state lasers, powerful enough for engraving, and most importantly, inexpensive.

The average price of a CO2 laser engraver is 200-300 thousand, and more or less reliable machines cost from 500 thousand rubles. Agree, this is a very serious amount of start-up investments. Against 30-50 thousand rubles compared to Endurance lasers and engraving tables.

Choose beautiful blanks for engraving. We recommend wood products such as boards, photo frames, cups, plates, pans, etc.

What is needed for this?

Our offer is metal engraving as a business. Of all the existing types, laser engraving on metal is the most common. But this does not limit the possibilities of this innovative technological method.

How it works

Engraving is applied using a directed laser beam on the workpiece. The luminous flux is transmitted to the focusing lens through optical fiber or a system of mirrors. The engraving process occurs due to the "evaporation" of the upper layers of the material by the laser beam. Depressions are formed on the surface to be treated. Their depth is measured in microns and depends on the distance between the laser and the material (the closer, the deeper the engraving depth). Also, this value depends on the strength of the beam that the laser machine produces, and the density of the material.

In addition to processing flat surfaces, laser engraving inside the glass is possible. It is carried out due to the refraction of the beam after passing through the glass object.

Laser engraving ensures high definition of the applied pattern and its durability.

Where Used

The range of laser engraving applications is quite large and is constantly expanding. One of the main applications of this is the souvenir and jewelry business, faleristics. Vivid examples of use:

Engraving on glass bottles.
Drawing commemorative inscriptions on various items (watches, cigarette cases, flasks, mugs).
Commemorative inscriptions on jewelry (mainly on rings).
Design and production of various medals, orders and cups using laser engraving.

In large-scale industry, laser engraving on metal is used for technical marking of products. It indicates the various characteristics of the use of the product and its technical characteristics. And also the manufacturer's logo, batch number and barcode are applied.

Multiple Small Business Options

In small business, the range of laser engraving applications is constantly expanding. The topic of individualization of various objects with the help of applying personalized logos, emblems or letter monograms is now relevant. The "hit of the season" is laser engraving on the plastic of a mobile phone case.

Laser engraving of clothes and fabrics is considered to be quite a fresh idea. This is especially stylish on denim clothing. This service will be in demand mainly among young people.

A safe option is to use a laser for the manufacture of various seals and sealants. With little competition in this service market, such a business pays off quickly.

Laser engraving is one of the methods of applying an image to an object using a laser beam. Laser engraving can make any item unique, and special laser engraving machines automate this process. Such a machine, together with a computer, is already a full-fledged business tool, but it is best to use such a bundle as part of an advertising agency. Since, basically, laser engraving is used to apply the name of the company, brand, label image to various items such as pens, lighters, key chains, phones and wallets. With the help of laser engraving, you can make very unusual business cards that will attract the attention of a potential client or partner.

About Laser Engraving Machines

There are machines for flat and 3d engraving. Flat engraving is the application of an image only in one plane of the product, as on a conventional printer. 3D engraving allows you to apply an image to complex objects in different planes. For example, to make an inscription on the inside of a wedding ring, you need a 3D laser engraving machine.

Also the machines have different working surface sizes, laser power, machining accuracy, service life and software compatibility. And all this affects their cost. The run-up in cost for such machines is very large. Starting from home (amateur) machines for 15 thousand rubles and ending with industrial machines for several million. I will give you some examples of laser machines costing up to a million rubles.

The cheapest models for 8-15 thousand rubles from Chinese manufacturers. Laser_AS and Laser_AS-3. These models are a kind of automated device for burning with a small working surface, low accuracy and quality of engraving. You can look at them and other installations on Aliexpress at this link. By the way, Ali now presents goods of both international and Russian brands.
AccTek AKJ6040 flat laser engraving machine from Jinan AccTek Machinery Co. (the company was founded in 2021) worth 180-200 thousand rubles, taking into account delivery, depending on the rate and volume of the order. This machine has a working surface of 600x400mm (

A2 format), accuracy + -0.03mm, engraving speed up to 600mm / s and cutting speed up to 200mm / s, service life 6000 hours. You can read more information about this and other machines in the store of this company Jinan AccTek Machinery Co., Ltd.

3D laser engraving machine AccTek Ak-10 F or AccTek Ak-20 F worth 400-500 thousand rubles from the same company Jinan AccTek Machinery Co. With this machine, laser engraving can be applied to metal products in various planes. The general characteristics of this machine are as follows: working space 100x100mm, accuracy 0.001mm, engraving speed up to 7000mm / s, marking depth 0.05-0.5mm.