Laser Engraving Acrylic

How Laser Engraving Changed Acrylic Awards

Introduced to the awards industry in the late 80s, laser engraving technology transformed the industry. Starting from the days of water-cooled lasers with very large physical footprints, many of today’s low-watt lasers are small enough to fit on an office desk.

Our manufacturing team uses two 100-watt Trotec laser engravers to expertly engrave text and graphics into acrylic sheet stock and embedded acrylic. Lasers remove incremental depths of the Lucite® acrylic material, leaving a frosted gray appearance on the surface. Depending on the depth of the engraving, color can be added by using a paste to color fill the engraved areas.

Our team often uses lasers to frost the back of acrylic, giving it a sandblasted look while full color UV printing on the front adds depth to the finished award. Laser technology has grown far beyond its original limitations of surface engraving and is now used in production facilities to manufacture custom shaped trophies out of acrylic.

The images above show several ways we use laser engraving in our graphic design process. From detailed logos to frosted text and custom-shaped acrylic, laser technology gives our team more precision, depth, and flexibility when creating acrylic awards.