Snapmaker opened its new infrared (IR) laser module for preorder today, a 2-watt device ideal for engraving metals in fine detail.

Previous laser modules by Snapmaker, such as its 20 and 40-watt blue light laser units, offer cutting potential with compatible materials but compromise with a significantly lower wavelength than the new 1064nm IR device – limiting metal compatibility to treated materials such as painted metal and anodized aluminum. Not so for the new IR beam, which can engrave gold, silver, copper, titanium, iron, stainless steel, aluminum, and chromium.

“While other Snapmaker laser modules (the 10W, 20W, and 40W lasers) use blue spectrum light for high-powered cutting and engraving, the new infrared laser was specially designed and engineered for delicate projects,” Snapmaker said in a press release. “The properties of the 1064nm Infrared Laser allow for very fine and detailed work, with a focal area as small as 0.03mm.”

Aside from metals, Snapmaker is touting its new IR laser as ideal for cutting plastic – pointing out that extends to 3D printed materials, too.

When it comes to engraving these sorts of metals and plastics, wavelength makes all the difference. Lasers in the IR range are effectively absorbed by the untreated metals and plastics listed above, while lower wavelength lasers – like Snapmaker’s previous blue light lasers – aren’t absorbed so well. That’s why some overlapping compatible materials between the lasers, like acrylic, for example, must be “dark” to work with Snapmaker’s blue light lasers but need not be when using IR.