Practical tips & tricks for laser processing of leather

Leather is a versatile material. Whether artifical leather or genuine leather - with laser engraving you can give wallets, belts or bracelets an individual touch of elegance. Find here some tips and tricks for laser processing.

Basics about the processing of genuine and imitation leather

For an optimal engraving result activate "Air Assist" and work with 500 ppi resolution. Both parameters can be adjusted in the material database in Ruby.

Genuine leather

Genuine leather is a natural material and there are countless types and all react differently. Therefore, it is difficult to establish common rules for the laser processing.

Some points should be observed in any case:

If genuine leather is deforming during laser processing, we recommend to reduce the laser power.
You want to clean the finished workpiece? Since it is a natural material, we can not recommend any cleaner. Aggressive cleaning agents may dry out the area or form spots on the leather. If you want to use a cleanser, please test on an inconspicuous area or, even better, on a test strip.

Imitation leather

Imitation leather usually has a fabric layer and is therefore form stable and easier to handle.
It can be easily cleaned with a damp sponge or tissue.
When engraving imitation leather, you can achieve a bright color change by defocusing. Defocus can be set via the Z-Offset in Ruby® (see screenshot above).
Trotec also offers LaserLeather; a high-quality two-tone artificial leather.