From Manual Engraving to Epilog: A Trophy Shop's Digital Transformation

The Challenge

For nearly two decades, this BC-based trophy and awards shop ran their business on a rotary engraving machine. It was the tool they knew, the workflow they’d optimized, and for most of their early history, it was enough.

But the limitations had been accumulating for years. Rotary engraving requires firm contact with the material — which rules out glass and crystal, soft materials, and anything that can’t be clamped flat. Job setup is manual and time-consuming: each job requires choosing the right cutter, setting depth, running a test pass, and adjusting. For one-off custom jobs, the setup time often exceeded the actual engraving time.

As customer expectations shifted toward photo-quality personalization — detailed portraits on glass, fine text on crystal trophies, intricate awards with logos at small sizes — the rotary machine’s mechanical resolution became a real constraint. The shop was turning down work they couldn’t produce, and outsourcing jobs they could theoretically do if they had the right equipment.

The decision to invest in a laser wasn’t made quickly. The owner spent over a year researching options, attending trade shows, and talking to other award shops. The question wasn’t whether to switch — it was which laser, and whether the investment would deliver.

The Solution

After consulting with Synergy Products, the shop chose the Epilog Fusion Edge 36 — a 36” × 24” CO₂ laser with a rotary attachment for cylindrical objects like glasses, mugs, and cylindrical trophies.

The Fusion Edge was chosen for several reasons. The 36” bed handles full sheets of Rowmark for batch production of plaques and tags. The rotary attachment unlocks glasses, tumblers, and cylindrical awards. The Epilog Job Manager software integrates directly with CorelDRAW — which the shop already used for layout — without requiring a workflow overhaul. And the machine’s reputation for reliability and Epilog’s North American service network were factors the owner weighted heavily.

Synergy’s team handled delivery, installation, and two days of hands-on training. The installation technician walked through the machine’s safety systems, demonstrated settings across common trophy shop materials, and worked through actual jobs from the shop’s existing queue using the new machine.

Results

The difference in throughput was immediate and significant.

With the rotary machine, a typical plaque — text layout, machine setup, test pass, production pass, cleanup — took 15 to 20 minutes per piece. With the Epilog, the same plaque runs in 90 seconds. For a busy production day, that’s the difference between completing 25 pieces and completing 250.

Batch jobs changed even more dramatically. A sheet of 12 identical name badges that previously required 12 individual setups on the rotary now runs as a single file — the laser processes all 12 in one pass without operator intervention.

Photo engraving on glass was a capability the shop had previously been unable to offer at all. Rotary engravers can scratch glass, but they can’t reproduce the tonal gradients needed for portrait-quality work. With the Epilog, the shop now offers photo engraving on glass and crystal awards — a premium service with significantly higher margin than standard text engraving.

Within six months of installation, the owner had added a second product category: laser-cut acrylic awards. The Fusion Edge cuts acrylic cleanly with a flame-polished edge — no secondary finishing required. The shop now designs and sells acrylic awards with complex cutout shapes, multi-layer constructions, and integrated standoffs. These products couldn’t be made on the previous equipment at any price point.

Work that had been outsourced — detailed graphic engraving, photo portraits, cut-out shapes — is now produced in-house, recapturing margin that was previously going to outside vendors.

Equipment Used

• Epilog Fusion Edge 36 — 36” × 24” CO₂ laser, with optional rotary attachment for cylindrical objects
• Epilog Job Manager — job queue management, print driver integration with CorelDRAW and Illustrator
• Installation and operator training by Synergy Products

What They Said

“[Placeholder — customer quote to be added upon review and approval.]”

— Owner, BC Trophy & Awards

Running an awards or engraving shop? Explore Epilog laser systems or contact Synergy Products to discuss which machine fits your production needs. Synergy Products is Canada’s authorized Epilog dealer.