Engraving Panels

[Grant Richter]

Does anyone have information on engraving faceplates?

The panels I'm using are deep blue anodized aluminum.
I took them to a local laser engraver and they did an absolute shit job.
Laser power seemed to be jumping all over the place, some spots have
a white color some are grey and some just taper off to brown.
They used a good quality black and white original and raster scanned it on
with the laser. Charged me $10 a panel. Cheaper than silkscreen for a one off,
if it would work.

Questions:

1. Is there any engraving system that will accept a postscript or gerber file
for vector engraving rather than raster?

2. Is there any mechanical engraving systems that would work for small
volume panel manufacturing? i.e. does Dremel make a pantagraph? or
anybody?

Thanks for any help.

Grant