LASER MARKING


lifetime, enables manufacturers to be proactive about replacement and recycling. Due to their precision, lasers


Lasers can be used to mark metallic surfaces in high-resolution and in a wide range of colours g


makes them well-suited to ‘cold marking’ – delivering high-energy photons that break the chemical bonds of a material to produce a mark while avoiding any thermal damage on the inner layers and surrounding areas of the target. For this reason they are not suitable for engraving. UV lasers can be used, however, to create highly precise marks on virtually any delicate material: glass, Teflon, diamond, ceramics, silicone, plastics, precious metals, even fruit. UV lasers are also very energy efficient and require little maintenance. They can however be more expensive than CO2


and fibre lasers.


Green lasers The 532nm wavelength of light created by a green laser can be used to mark a wide range of plastics, reflective materials, and materials that are sensitive to heat. Precious metals such as gold, silver and copper can be marked easily using a green laser and they are often a good choice for marking printed circuit boards, electrical components, computer chips, foils, magnetic cards, and sensitive electronics. Transparent or translucent materials, or those of colours that cannot be marked using a traditional 1,064nm wavelength


fibre laser, can often be marked with a green laser.


Growing applications of laser marking


Electronics Owing to the growing use of ceramics in the manufacture of printed circuit boards (PCBs), laser marking systems are increasingly being employed as alternatives to ink-based printing. Many laser system manufacturers have developed machines that exploit sources particularly suited to the marking of ceramics, such as UV lasers as well as traditional CO2


lasers.


Fruit and vegetables Distributors of fruit and vegetables are looking to reduce the number of stickers and the packaging they use to brand and protect their products. Organic products are required by law to be recognisable as such by consumers, meaning that many supermarkets need to package and/or sticker the organic products they sell. Eosta, a European distributor


of organic fruit and vegetables, claims to have saved 50 million pieces of plastic packaging thanks to its use of laser marking technology. The process it uses


involves the removal of a trivial amount of pigment from the outer layer of the skin or peel of a vegetable or fruit. The method not only saves plastic and paper, but also large amounts of energy and emissions; a laser mark requires a mere fraction of the energy required for a sticker. According to EcoMark,


“The technology can be used to mark 77,000 PVC medical parts with data matrix codes per hour”


a European provider of food- marking systems, throughput rates of around 50,000 vegetables or pieces of fruit per hour are achievable using laser technology.


Traceability


Ginger, avocados, mangoes and sweet potatoes are commonly marked using laser technology


Lasers can be used to engrave a wide variety of metals and non-metals with durable, permanent marks


48 LASER SYSTEMS EUROPE THE 2023 GUIDE TO LASER SYSTEMS


By marking individual products with unique data matrix codes, it is possible to easily identify the company that made it, its lifespan and its batch number in a quick, easy and non-invasive manner. Such codes are used for quality assurance purposes – consumers and users can check where a product comes from simply by scanning the mark with their smartphones. This is especially useful in the manufacture of medical devices and components for the automotive/aerospace industries, for instance, where an easily accessible record of such details could be vital in the event that something goes wrong. The ability to trace a product, learn when it fails, or find out when it reaches the end of its


can produce detailed codes down to 200μm in size, small enough that they cannot be easily seen, but can still be scanned if a person knows their location. At such sizes, data matrices can be used for anti-counterfeiting purposes, making it easy to confirm the authenticity of high-quality goods in a non-invasive way. Glasses, polymers and thin


metal foils can be difficult to mark with such codes, however, as can curved surfaces. To solve this latter problem, laser-marking system manufacturer Laserax offers CO2


and fibre lasers


equipped with focusing optics that adjust automatically for the curvature of an object. Manufacturers also often


require extremely high throughput. This is a problem, as each mark must be adapted for the individual product to which it is applied, but the rate of marking must be high. To address this, another laser marking system manufacturer, QiOVA, has developed its VULQ1 technology that does not rely on one beam operating on a sequential basis (as is the case for traditional marking systems), but instead uses hundreds of beams to create a stamp-like effect, producing a whole data matrix code in an instant. The technology can, for instance, be used to mark polyvinyl chloride (PVC) medical parts with 570μm- wide data matrix codes at a rate of 77,000 parts per hour. Other materials the system can mark include aluminium coated with high-density polyethylene (HDPE), soda-lime and borosilicate glasses, pure gold and epoxies. l


For the latest laser application and technology updates in the field of laser marking, visit:


www.lasersystemseurope.com/ applications/marking- engraving


@LASERSYSTEMSMAG | WWW.LASERSYSTEMSEUROPE.COM


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