When you have the idea of purchasing a laser marking machine, you should know what is a laser marking machine? How does the laser marking machine work? Advantages of laser marking machine, application of laser marking machine, laser marking machine with different processes.
What is a laser marking machine? Laser marking is a method of marking various objects with laser. The principle of laser marking is that the laser beam will change the optical appearance of the impact surface in some way. This can occur through a variety of mechanisms:
1. Ablative materials (laser engraving); Sometimes some colored surface layers are removed.
2. Melt the metal to change the surface structure.
3. Slight combustion (carbonization), such as paper, cardboard, wood or polymer.
4. Conversion of pigments (industrial laser additives) in plastic materials (such as bleaching).
5. If, for example, some additives evaporate, the polymer expands.
6. Produce surface structure, such as small bubbles.
By scanning the laser beam (for example, using two movable mirrors), you can quickly write letters, symbols, barcodes and other graphics using vector scanning or raster scanning. Another method is to use masks (projection markers, mask markers) that are imaged on the workpiece. This method is simple and fast (even applicable to moving workpieces), but not as flexible as scanning. "Laser marking" means marking or marking the workpiece and material with a laser beam. In this respect, different processes are distinguished, such as engraving, removal, dyeing, annealing and foaming. According to the material and quality requirements, each of these processes has its own advantages and disadvantages.
How does the laser marking machine work?
Fundamentals of Laser Technology All lasers contain three components:
1. External pump source.
2. Active laser medium.
3. Resonator.
The pump source directs external energy to the laser. The active laser medium is located inside the laser. According to the design, the laser medium can be composed of gas mixture (CO2 laser), crystal (YAG laser) or glass fiber (fiber laser). When energy is pumped into the laser medium, it emits energy in the form of radiation. The active laser medium is located between the two mirrors, namely the "resonator". One of these mirrors is a one-way mirror. The radiation of the active laser medium is amplified in the resonator. At the same time, only a certain amount of radiation can leave the resonator through the one-way mirror. This bundled radiation is laser radiation.
Advantages of laser marking machine
The consistent high precision marking benefits from the high precision of laser marking. Even very beautiful graphics, 1-point fonts and very small geometric shapes can be clearly identified. At the same time, laser marking ensures consistent high-quality results.
Fast marking speed
Laser marking is one of the fastest marking processes in the market. This leads to high productivity and cost advantages during manufacturing. Depending on the structure and size of the material, different laser sources (such as fiber lasers) or lasers (such as galvanometer lasers) can be used to further improve the speed.
Durable marking
Laser etching is permanent, with wear resistance, heat resistance and acid resistance. Depending on the laser parameter settings, certain materials can also be marked without damaging the surface.
Application of laser marking machine
Laser marking machine has many applications:
1. Add part number, "date of use", etc. on food packages, bottles, etc.
2. Add traceability information for quality control.
3. Mark printed circuit board (PCB), electronic components and cables.
4. Print logo, barcode and other information on the product.
Compared with other marking technologies such as inkjet printing and mechanical marking, laser marking has many advantages, such as high processing speed, low operating cost (no consumables), consistent high quality and result durability, pollution avoidance, very small functions, and high flexibility in automation.
Plastic materials, wood, cardboard, paper, leather and acrylic resin are usually marked with relatively low power CO2 laser. For metal surfaces, these lasers are not suitable because they are at long wavelengths (about 10 μ m) The absorption at is very small. It is more suitable, for example, to obtain 1- μ Laser wavelength in m range. Typical laser power for marking is about 10 to 100W. A shorter wavelength (e.g. 532 nm) (e.g. obtained by frequency doubling of a YAG laser) may be advantageous, but such light sources are not always economically competitive. For marks at 1 μ Metals such as gold with low absorbance in the m spectral range must use a short wavelength laser.
Metalware
Stainless steel, aluminum, gold, silver, titanium, bronze, platinum or copper
Laser has been used for many years, especially in laser engraving and metal marking. Using laser can not only mark soft metals such as aluminum accurately, clearly and quickly, but also mark steel or very hard alloy. For some metals, such as steel alloys, corrosion resistance markings can even be applied without damaging the surface structure using annealing markings. Products made of metal are marked by laser in many industries.
plastic
Polycarbonate (PC), polyamide (PA), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene copolymer (ABS), polyimide (PI), polystyrene (PS), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polyester (PES)
The laser can be marked or engraved on the plastic in many ways. With the help of fiber laser, you can mark many different commercial plastics on permanent, fast and high-quality surfaces, such as polycarbonate, ABS, polyamide, etc. Because of the short setup time and high flexibility of the laser marking machine, you can even economically mark small batches.
Organic materials
Organic materials require special solutions in order to provide them with clear and permanent markings. The laser marking system developed by our experts can perfectly meet this requirement. A system that can control the intensity to keep the heat generation within the required range.
Glass and ceramics, glass and ceramics and other materials put forward strict requirements for our customers and the industries they operate in. For this reason, we have developed a technology that can apply high contrast and crack free marks on glass.
Different processes of laser marking machine
Annealing marking Annealing marking is a special type used for laser etching of metals. The thermal effect of the laser beam leads to the oxidation process under the surface of the material, which leads to the color change of the metal surface.
Laser engraving
In the process of laser engraving, the workpiece surface will be melted and evaporated by the laser. Therefore, the laser beam removes the material. The impression created on the surface is sculpture.
Remove
During the removal process, the laser beam removes the topcoat applied to the substrate. Contrast is produced due to different colors of finish paint and substrate. Common materials for laser marking by removing materials include anodized aluminum, coated metals, foils and films or laminates.
Blistering
During the foaming process, the laser beam will melt the material. In this process, bubbles will be generated in the material, and these bubbles will diffuse the light. Therefore, the mark will be brighter than the unexposed area. This type of laser marking is mainly used for dark plastic.
carbonization
Carbonization can create a strong contrast on bright surfaces. During carbonization, the laser heats the surface of the material (minimum 100 ° C) and releases oxygen, hydrogen or a mixture of two gases. The rest is the dark area with higher carbon concentration. Carbonization can be used for polymers or biopolymers, such as wood or leather. Because carbonization always leads to dark marks, the contrast on dark materials will be very small.
Color mark
Color marking is a marking process using MOPA optical fiber laser source to mark colors on stainless steel, titanium and other metal surfaces. MOPA refers to the configuration composed of main laser (or seed laser) and optical amplifier to improve the output power.
3D marker
The 3D laser marking system controls the high-speed reciprocating motion of the optical beam expanding lens in the optical axis direction through software, dynamically adjusts the focal length of the laser beam, so that the focal spots at different positions on the workpiece surface remain uniform, thus realizing the surface accuracy of 3D surface and laser processing.