Send a part first
Post a part ahead of the call and the numbered capability study is on the table when we talk.
Scoping call
Thirty minutes to settle the source, the module set and the number, against your own parts
Thirty minutes, usually by video, with the engineer who would specify the system. The parts and the material they are made from settle the source class and the power. The volumes and the batch pattern settle the module set and the throughput the system is sized to. The route the work takes today settles where the system sits on the floor and which jobs move onto it first. You come off the call with the shape of the system, the drivers the price is built from, and the next measurement to take.
- The source class specified against the material: fibre at about 1064 nm and pulse-controlled MOPA on metals, green at 515 or 532 nm on copper and brass, UV at 355 nm on glass, ceramics and heat sensitive plastics, CO2 at 9.3, 10.2 or 10.6 micron on timber, board and acrylic
- Send a part ahead of the call and a numbered Marking Process Capability Study is on the table when we talk, stating the substrate as received, the parameter set, the verification grade and the determined process window
- A written proposal follows, with hardware, module set, software configuration, install, training and support tier priced as separate lines
Book a scoping call
Book the call
Thirty minutes against your own parts, volumes and materials. Tell us what runs through the line and the call is built around it before it starts.
Engineers on both ends
The call is run by the engineer who would own the build, not by a sales desk.
What the call settles
Three inputs, and each one settles a different part of the specification. The parts and the material they are made from settle the source class and the power: fibre at about 1064 nm on steel, stainless, aluminium, titanium and coated metal, pulse-controlled MOPA where pulse duration, repetition rate and pulse energy have to move independently, green at 515 or 532 nm where copper and brass reflect the infrared and absorption climbs sharply below about 600 nm, UV at 355 nm on glass, ceramics, PCBs and heat sensitive plastics, and CO2 at 9.3, 10.2 or 10.6 micron on timber, board, acrylic and coated surfaces. Naming the class takes three questions about substrate, grade and finish, which is why it happens in the first few minutes and the rest of the thirty goes on volumes and floor plan.
Your volumes and batch pattern settle the module set and how the part is presented to the head: a rotary for drinkware, a conveyor for batched flat parts, jigs for repeat product lines, extraction and filtration sized against the fume the material actually gives off, and enclosure, interlocks, beam containment and a rated safety circuit specified to ISO 11553-1, IEC 60825-1, IEC 60204-1 and ISO 13849-1. Class 4 safety is part of the install specification rather than an accessory bolted to it, and it is priced that way in the proposal.
How the work is routed today, sent out entirely, run in-house in a narrow way, or a mix of both, settles where the system lands on the floor and which jobs move onto it first. Bring the volumes as they sit in your production record rather than as they are remembered, because those figures size the source, the bed and the module set behind them. A photograph of a part settles a conversation. The part itself settles the parameters.
Send a part ahead of the call and the measurement is on the table
Post or courier a representative piece of what you actually run: the stock, the grade, the finish and the surface condition the parts arrive in, rather than a clean offcut chosen to make the job easy. On the pre-call form, say what it is, what you want marked or cut on it, and what happens to it afterwards, the wash, the chemistry, the abrasion, the years outdoors.
It comes back to you marked, with a numbered Marking Process Capability Study stating the substrate and surface condition as received, the parameter set that produced the mark, the verification grade against the applicable standard, Data Matrix graded per ISO/IEC 15415 and linear symbologies per ISO/IEC 15416, the durability result against the conditions you named, and the determined process window. The study is run at our cost. What it costs you is a courier bag and a piece of your own stock.
Published figures are typical envelopes from our own testing. The binding number is the one determined on your own material, which is why the part goes first and the quote follows it. A marked part in your hand carries more than any figure on a page, and it arrives with the settings that produced it, so the result is repeatable on the floor rather than a one-off out of a demonstration room.
What the call covers
Thirty minutes, usually by video, in roughly this order.
- The products as they are made today: what is cut, engraved or marked in-house, what goes out to another shop, and where those two meet in the schedule
- Production volumes taken from your record: units, run frequency and batch size, including the busiest month rather than an average of it
- The materials and surface conditions in play, and what the finished mark has to survive in service: wash-down, abrasion, UV exposure, over-coating or handling
- Where the job, batch or serial data already lives, whether that is a job sheet, an order system or an ERP, and which of those the Control Layer reads so the mark is composed for the part in front of the head rather than typed in by an operator
- The system that follows from those inputs: source class and power, bed size, the module set, the depth of software configuration, install, training and support tier
- The drivers the price and the timeline are built from, with a written itemised proposal after the call rather than a decision taken during it
Who should be in the room
The person who owns the decision to bring the work in-house, usually the owner or the general manager, and the production or operations lead who would run the system once it is on the floor. Floor space, power supply, extraction routing, material handling and who sets a job up on a Friday afternoon all come from the second person, and every one of them changes the specification.
Source selection, the safety specification, fixturing and parameter development are ours to bring. What the call needs from your side is the product range, the volumes and the materials, in the detail they actually exist in.
What to bring
Three inputs carry most of the call. The more concrete each one is, the tighter the specification that comes out of it.
- Photographs of the products you want to produce, or the parts themselves if they are to hand. Mark size, character density and the smallest text on the part decide how much drawing time each mark costs, and beam time is path length, not area.
- Production volumes as they run: units, how often, in what batch sizes, and the seasonal pattern across the year. Repeat volume is what turns a configured part library into a number, because a job set up once is a job set up for years.
- The materials: substrate, grade, finish or coating, and the conditions the mark has to hold through once the part is in service. Treatment chemistry and coatings change both the mark and the fume, so they are reviewed per product rather than assumed from a similar one.
What happens after you book
Four steps, in this order, from the confirmation email to a proposal you read in your own time.
- Step 1
Confirmation and a short pre-call form
The form takes the product range, the volumes, the materials and whether a part is coming ahead of the call, so the thirty minutes goes on the specification rather than on basics.
Why it matters: The material and volume figures collected here decide which source class and which module set are on the table before the call starts.
- Step 2
The scoping call
Thirty minutes, usually by video, working from the products and materials to the source class, then from the volumes to the module set and the throughput the system is sized to, then to where it sits on your floor.
Why it matters: Every driver the price is built from is settled in the call, so what follows carries a scope rather than a range you still have to qualify.
- Step 3
Capability marking on your own material
Your part is run on the rig and returned marked with the numbered study: substrate as received, parameter set, verification grade and the determined process window. Where a part arrived before the call, this result is already in hand when we talk.
Why it matters: The binding number comes off your own substrate, in the condition it actually arrives in, rather than off a published envelope.
- Step 4
The written proposal, itemised
Hardware, module set, software configuration, install, training, warranty options, support tier and price as separate lines, alongside the delivery sequence set out on how it works.
Why it matters: Each line is priced against the work it does, so the scope is read item by item and taken away rather than agreed on the call.
Questions answered before you book
How is the call structured?
As a technical scoping session. It runs from your products and materials to the source class and the power, then from your volumes and batch pattern to the module set and the throughput the system is sized to, then to the drivers the price is built from. The proposal is written afterwards and read in your own time.
How much do we need to know before booking?
The product range, the materials and a real volume figure are enough. Source class, power, bed size, fixturing and module set are worked out from those three inputs during the call, and the parameters are settled on your own material afterwards.
How long does the call take?
Thirty minutes covers most operations. A wide part range or several substrates runs longer, and the extra time goes on the parts rather than on a presentation.
Can a part be marked before we book a call?
Yes. Post or courier a representative piece and it comes back marked, with the numbered Marking Process Capability Study attached: substrate as received, parameter set, verification grade against the applicable standard, durability against the conditions you named, and the determined process window. Most operations still book the call afterwards, because the study answers the material question and the call answers the volume and system question.
What if the capital is a year away?
The call still produces the specification and the drivers behind the number, which is what a capital case gets written from. The capability study result holds for the material it was run on, so the material question stays answered while the timing catches up.
Where does the software on its own fit?
Where the machine is already on your floor, or the hours the work runs are light, the controller-aware core on its own is the route that earns its place, and the call says so with your volumes attached. The software emits one internal, dialect-neutral motion program into GRBL, Marlin, Smoothieware and Generic, with power scaling read off the controller's own registers at connect time.
What does the system on the call actually run on?
The Light Lane Control Layer, in the deployment form the work calls for. The desktop application and the industrial marking layer run on the same controller-aware core, written in Nelson, so a rotary station on a bench and an inline head on a moving chain compose a mark the same way. The business system sets out what arrives with it, and the multi-site architecture is on enterprise.
Book the call against your own parts
Thirty minutes settles the source class, the module set and the drivers the number is built from. Send a part ahead of it and the numbered capability study is on the table when we talk.
Last updated August 21, 2026