What Is Laser Marking?
Laser marking, also called as laser engraving or laser etching, is a non-contact laser processing method. It works with a focused light beam to mark or engrave logo, text, patterns, pictures, serial number, barcode on the surface of materials. At present, laser marking is a common processing method and used for a very wide variety of applications.
What Is The Laser Marking Machine?
A laser marking machine is a CNC marking system that includes laser generator, high speed galvanometer, filed focus lens and laser marking software. The working principle is that the laser generator produces a high-energy continuous laser beam to instantly melt or even vaporize the surface of materials, through the control software to set well the marking path and parameters to create a clear and permanent graphic on the object.
Generator Selection of Laser Marking Machine
It is generally known that the laser generator is the key component of CNC laser marking systems. Choosing different laser generator will offer you with different marking effect, according to the marking materials and requirements to choose the most suitable generator for your laser marking solutions, the generators for laser marker machines are mainly as below :
• Fiber Laser Generator
Brand: Raycus, Max, IPG, JPT.
• MOPA Laser Generator ( It is a special type of fibre laser generator ).
Brand: JPT, Raycus.
• CO2 Laser Generator
Brand: American Synrad, Coherent, Dawei, Reci .
• UV Laser Generator
Brand: American Advanced Optowave, JPT, Inngu, Huaray.
Common Types Laser Marker Machine
Today, the laser marking machine has been widely used in various industry. Different industry with different materials, the marking method and processing solution are also different. In order to meet the marking requirements for different materials, there are 6 common types of laser marking machines for your as below :
• Fiber Laser Marking Machines
• CO2 Laser Marking Machines
• MOPA Laser Marking Machines
• UV Laser Marking Machines
• 3D Dynamic Laser Marking Machines
• Large Size Laser Marking Machines
For some special materials or industries, we can also customize the marking solutions for you according to your processing requirements.
Advantage of Laser Marking Machine
Toady, the laser marking machines are widely used for lots of industries, because it can create a perfect design on metal and non-metal materials. Compared with other types of laser processing methods, there are some main advantages of laser marking machines are listed here.
1. Fast Marking Speed
Our laser marker adopt high speed galvanometer and the actual marking speed can up to 2000-3000mm/s. Compare to some traditional marking methods, the laser marking speed is extremely fast, so as to cut down the time consumption and reduce cost.
2. High Marking Accuracy
With the feature of fine laser beam that the marking precision of fiber laser marking machine can reach to 0.0025mm, and it can mark 0.1mm text.
3. Long service lifetime
The service time of the laser generator can reach to 100,000 hours, and the whole machine can be used for 6-8 years.
4. Precise Positioning
The laser marking machine is installed with laser positioning device, which can easily identify the marking area and mark correctly.
5. Non-contact Processing Method
Laser marking is non-contact type process. It does not produce any deformation in product unlike in punching, stamping, pneumatic pin, vibratory pencil etc.
6. Abundant Marking Materials
With the possibility of flexibly adjusting the laser parameters, laser marking machine could process all the metals ( gold, silver, titanium, copper, aluminum, steel, alloy, zinc, stainless steel ect ) and non-metal materials ( wood, glass, plastics, acrylic, rubber, ceramics, resins, cartons, leather, clothes , paper, epoxy resin, PVC, marble, stones ect ).
7. Low Cost
Easy operation and free maintenance, the total power of laser marker is < 500W.
8. Environmental Protection
Compared with acid etching, laser marking is environmentally responsible way and does not produce any toxic fumes or waste byproducts.
9. Powerful Software Compatibility
Currently, CNC laser marking systems are mainly used for 2D or 3D marking. The marking software supports multiple file formats and coding, and support the import of vector graphics, bitmap files, 3D STL model, text, bar code etc are as below:
Vector Marking Files : *.plt, *.ai,*.dxf,*.jpc,*.svg,*.nc,*.bot,*.br,*.dst, ect.
Bitmap Marking Files : *.bmp, *.jpg,*.jpeg, *.gif, *.tga,*.png,*.tif,*.tiff, ect.
3D STL Model: mainly used for 3D workpiece marking, relief processing and 3D mould engraving.
Related auxiliary design software for the laser marking machine files: SolidWorks, AutoCAD, CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop ect.
Introduction of CNC Laser Marking Machine
• Fiber Laser Marking Machine
The fiber laser marking machine adopts a fiber laser generator, also known as Solid-State Laser (SSL) equipment, working wavelength standard is 1064nm. With the features of easy operation, fast marking speed, high marking accuracy, 100,000 hours service time and free maintenance, fiber laser marking machine is an ideal marking solution for variety of products processing.
• CO2 Laser Marking Machine
The CO2 laser marking machines adopt CO2 gas in a sealed-off metal tube as the laser generator. It is gas laser marker machine that are based on carbon dioxide gas mixture, due to their wavelength (9.3 µm/10.6 µm), this type of CO2 marking machines are commonly used for marking and engraving most non-metallic materials, such as wood, glass, ceramic, crystal, jade, acrylic, PVC, paper packaging, rubber, plastic products, garments, cloth, fabric, leather, film, ect.
• MOPA Laser Marking Machines
The MOPA laser marker machine is a kind of fiber laser, the term MOPA is an abbreviation for Master Oscillator Power Amplifier. The main features of MOPA fiber laser are that the laser marking frequency and pulse width can be independently controlled.
As MOPA fiber laser can be modified the frequency and pulse width, through these two laser marking parameter adjustment collocation, it can achieve constant peak power output.
MOPA laser with the advantages of first pulse is available, the pulse width modulation is wider, and the response speed is faster, which enables them to work with a large number of materials than the fiber laser marking machines.
Compared with fiber laser that can only mark metal materials, MOPA laser also can also mark for some non-metal materials. For some special materials marking, MOPA laser marking will show you some unexpected results such as color marking on stainless steel, black color marking on anodized aluminum, high contrast marking on plastics, 0.1mm smaller text marking , depth marking by high power MOPA generator, stripping anode, stripping coating, semiconductor and electronics industry, plastic and other sensitive material marking and PVC plastic pipe industry.
• UV Laser Marking Machines
The UV laser marking machine is a type of Ultraviolet (UV) laser marker, working with a 355nm wavelength UV laser generator. The wavelength of a UV laser is one-third of standard wavelength lasers, and thus UV lasers are also referred to as third-harmonic generation (THG) lasers.
UV laser marker is a "cold laser marking" method, the UV laser beam diameter is only 20 μm after focusing, there is no significant thermal influence next to the slit and no damage to the materials caused by the heat generated.
Compared with the fiber laser marking machine and CO2 laser marking machine, the main advantage of the UV laser marking system is the multifunctionality and capacity of engraving or cutting over different materials, UV laser marking machines not only can mark on all the metal materials but also can mark all the nonmetal material.
Moreover, due to the high-quality laser beam, the UV laser marker is designed as the best marking solution for frosted effect glass, plastic color marking and some other high-contrast and ultra-fine effect marking.
• 3D Dynamic Laser Marking Machines
3D laser marking machines is a dynamic marking system working with auto-focus function, which can be equipped with optical fiber and CO2 laser generator. It is a advanced dynamic laser processing solution that creates a amazing 3D logos, patterns, designs on non-flat surface and objects with different heights.
The 3D laser marker machine is composed of 3D marking software, auto-focus system, dynamic galvanometer, field lens and laser generator. Compare to ordinary 2D laser marking machine with 2 mirrors, the 3D laser marking machine has 3 mirrors, and the third mirrors can automatically move forward and backward when the machine is marking. Under the controlled of 3D marking software, the machine will automatically change the marking position and focus length of laser beam on each 3D coordinate.
Moreover, the maximum working size of ordinary 2D laser marker machines is 300mm×300 mm, but 3D laser marking machine with dynamic focusing laser Scanning System can provide you with more processing areas ranges from 500mm×500 mm to 1600mm×1600 mm.
Unlike the simple laser marking machines that can only be used for 2D effect, 3D laser engraving technology can also mark on round shapes, cylindrical shapes, conical shapes, parts with concave or convex portions, triangular shapes, and sloped surfaces. It is also an idle laser processing solution for depth marking and 3D relief engraving on metal or aluminium materials.
• Large Size Laser Marking Machines
Large size laser marking machine adopts splicing marking technology specially for processing some big size materials. With the increase of big size projects, there are more and more large customized markings, but there is a marking area limit compared with the ordinary laser marking machine. In order to meet this processing requests, DEKCEL CNC research a new model DEK-1325M/1530M large format size laser marking machine which specially used for big size and customized marking.