Best Price Guarantee
If you find a better price somewhere else, let us know. We’ll cover the difference, worry free. See full details at gr.pn/bpg

After Your Purchase
After purchasing this deal, you'll need to visit the merchant's website to complete redemption.

Mini Name Plate Ankle Bracelet

Laser Engraving: Making a Good Impression

Laser-engraving machines can monogram rings, bracelets, or lockets in a fraction of the time it would take using more traditional methods. Check out Groupon's examination of how they accomplish this feat.

Engraving machines are made up of a computer, a laser, mirrors, and a cutting surface. Using an uploaded design as a blueprint, the laser beam engraves a piece in one of three ways:

1. Moving up and down or left to right to create the image—much like how an old-fashioned dot-matrix printer would print out Shakespeare's rough drafts.

2. Staying still while the cutting surface shuttles the object under it.

3. Dancing across the material as if it is drawing the design freehand. As this happens, mirrors magnify the intensity of the laser beam so it can engrave the object at the right time.

In each case, the engraving happens via the process of ablation, which removes material through evaporation—as opposed to physically cutting the material (abrasion). Because the laser is so concentrated, a high proportion of the light's energy is converted into heat, effectively vaporizing the surface.