Today marking lasers are of many types and can mark all materials . If until a few years ago there were limits in terms of quality and range of markable materials, today this is no longer the case.
Depending on the type of material and the expected result, there is a suitable laser marker .
Due to the great abundance of possibilities, choosing a suitable laser is not easy and represents a challenge for many operators in the sector. Let’s try to clarify in this article the things to take into consideration to choose the right laser marker for our needs.
First we need to understand the characteristics of the laser and the material properties of our components.
Among the lasers that you have heard of most often there are the Fiber lasers , the Wave ones, the UV ones and certainly CO2 . Each of them adapts to one material more than another. Generally speaking, we know Fiber for its total effectiveness on metals . The Green Wave laser is instead more suitable for plastics , such as the more famous UV laser.
The CO2 laser is the most used for marking organic materials . Within the Fiber category there are also technological variants suitable for particular applications. We will deepen them at the end of this article, we are talking about the MOPA laser and the Picosecond laser .
It is important to understand how the material to be marked absorbs the laser light at the wavelength of the laser itself. Ferrous and non-ferrous materials have optimal absorption at 1064 nm, while precious metals do so at 355 and 532 nm.
Plastics also absorb longer wavelength laser output.
Laser technologies
With the advent of the Fiber laser , there has been a real revolution in the world of laser and marking. The fiber laser has become the center of every application and has been tested and refined to suit almost any market demand Marcatori laser prezzo.
One thing to keep in mind is that the output power of all solid-state lasers degrades over time, but it is possible to calibrate the system to maintain the same power in the laser as the day it left the factory. This will allow the laser to maintain the same quality and speed as the sign of the day it arrived and was put into production.
Typical reference values of a marking system
| TYPICAL VALUES | YAG | VANADATO | FIBER |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Pulse Duration (ns)
|
10-150
|
5-30
|
10-200
|
|
Beam quality (M²)
|
<1.2
|
<1.2
|
<2
|
|
Peak Power (kW)
|
High, 100 kW range
|
Medium, 80 kW range
|
Low, 10 kW range
|
|
Average Power (W)
|
5-30
|
5-40
|
10-50
|
|
Pulse repetition frequency range
|
5-80 kHz
|
20-120 kHz
|
20 kHz – 1 MHz
|
Properties of the radius
Pulse repetition frequency
Applications
The most common terms used in laser marking include: etching, annealing, selective ablation, and surface removal . Depending on the application and material, one laser is more suitable than the other.
If we look at the Day & Night components, the vanadate laser can work well. The surface removal process adapts to the characteristics of this laser, which are short pulse and repetition rate. Speed is essential to avoid burning the plastic component.
Ablation is also a commonly applied process in laser marking anodized aluminum .
Another very common application for which a particular Fiber laser is effective is annealing on medical components. They are usually made of stainless steel and titanium. Naturally, we are talking about all components such as prostheses, surgical instruments, dental components. The high peak power of the Picosecond Laser here is ideal for obtaining black and impalable markings .
The resistance of this laser marking to passivation cycles and corrosion due to aggressive agents is more important than in other cases. This is because laser marking can be functional to indicate to the surgeon some important dimensional information on the component in question. The scarcity of the reflective effect of the Picosecond laser is another factor that favors this product over others in the medical field.
