What you need to know about Laser Marking
You might have seen some marks on various surfaces before and wondered how they are done. A permanent process known as laser marking is used. It creates long lasting marks on various materials. These materials may include copper, plastic, glass, titanium, steel, aluminum, ceramic, cardboard, papers and wood. The process is mainly performed with a pulsed, fiber or continuous wave laser machine. Laser marking is applied in many instances the most common being engraving, annealing, discoloration, carbon migration and etching. Different texts are marked on different parts and products. The texts may include serial numbers, barcodes and unique identification codes. To increase production the process is normally automated in most cases. Laser marking is mainly about altering the surfaces of different materials. To mark the surface, a focused beam of light is used. The light alters some physical and chemical properties of the material living permanent marks. This light is focused on specified areas thus the marks left are of high quality and high contrast, they are easy to see and read.
There are many benefits associated to laser marking. You can imagine using other means such as printing or labelling, you will be forced to replace the marks after some time and there will be need for repeated maintenance too. Using laser marking you will be able to avoid that changing and maintenance cost since the mark left is permanent. You will enjoy accountability throughout the supply chain. You will have minimized costly threats such as quality and counterfeit issues. With laser marks, you are ensured of compliance with the industry regulations. Due to lack of consumables, the operating cost is normally minimal. Sometimes the surface to be marked is so small or has an irregular shape. It might be difficult with other methods but using a laser machines it becomes easy. Laser marking is of late becoming a trend that many companies are using especially in electronics and audio equipment. This is because the process is cost effective and helps in tracking goods throughout the manufacturing cycle, sales distribution and after sale warranty verification. Automated tracking system requires that a permanent readable code be applied on the internal printed circuit board for a unique identification. The mark must be fixed well to withstand the other manufacturing process such as board cleaning.
Laser marking technology provide a method for permanently applying a two dimension matrix codes. This results to increased accuracy of beam steered laser marking systems. It provides the means to create high reliable codes regardless of the code size. Many people prefer the laser marking as it provides a computer controlled marking process hence easy implementation into the automated product tracking system. It also offer high information density meaning you can have a lot of information stored in a very small area. You can have the print in the wanted scale as it can be read in various levels according to the size of the material you want printed. The information is the same no matter the size of the print. It is possible to get the whole information even a small area of the print cannot be seen.