Laser Marking

[Eric@HorsepowerInc.]

Looking into purchasing a system and wanted to see if anyone here has one at thier shop. Just curious on any recommended brands or do's and dont's. The parts will mainly be Hard Coat anodized Aluminum and Brass, mostly engraving on round cylinder type stuff. Nothing real fancy, just part numbers and un-complicated logo's for some of our customers. Any feed back welcome.

[Marshal]

We've got 4 lasers here for various purposes, usually for marking on or through paint or adhesives.

 

Keyence (http://www.keyence.com/products/marker/index.jsp) makes some really nice lasers. Granted, the price is a little steep for what you are probably looking for.

 

Another option is Universal Laser Systems (http://www.ulsinc.com/materials/metal/). I think they cost considerably less than the Keyence markers.

[Eric@HorsepowerInc.]

Marshal, what type are you running? We have been looking at a fiber type. Looked to be around the 40 mark.

[Marshal]

Marshal, what type are you running? We have been looking at a fiber type. Looked to be around the 40 mark.

 

We've got 3 CO2's and a YV04. The YV04 will etch metal very well, with a very small beam diameter, and that's one of the things we use it for. However, a YV04 will not cut through a clear material of any kind (clearcoat in our case), it'll pass directly through it and burn what's underneath, which in our case results in the clearcoat being blown out of the area by the escaping gases. It's not from a company I recommend though.

 

2 of the CO2's can etch metals as well, and mark on or through clear materials, but with a larger beam diameter. The keyence one we have won't mark metal without something coating it, but they have models that do. The ULS ones (VLS models) will definitely etch metal.

 

I want to say our Keyence laser was in the 50's, but it's specifically designed for intricate work, and on 3d surfaces. The ULS lasers were under 20k if I'm not mistaken, but that was over 5 years ago.

 

It really depends on how small of a number/logo you want to mark, how fast you want it to mark, what size table you need, and what else you want to use it for. We usually find more things to use the lasers on than we ever thought they'd be useful for.

[crazy^millman]

Eric, Yoshimura one of my customers has a many different systems in their plant. I will be in there Thursday and will see what they are using to mark all the exhaust stuff they make and let you know.

[Craig-B]

We Have Control Laser and Foba here the both are good system will mark about anything.

 

http://www.controllaser.com/f-series.php

 

http://www.fobalaser.com/products/laser-marking-machines/

 

[Eric@HorsepowerInc.]

Ron, that would be great, I really appreciate any effort. Marshal/FNMI, how much maintainance have your systems required, I see the relitive cost varies considerably pending on the unit. Thanks for all the input on these as this is a new territory for us and want to make sure we head down the right path the first time. We are currently looking at about 15,000+ pcs annually, not sure if thats a lot or not much, either way good addition to what we do.

[crazy^millman]

I would think that is middle of the road for volume and need to think about fixtures and tooling for these machines. I have seen tray racks and basic sheet metal patterns and even really involved ones with spring clamps and such.

[Marshal]

Ron, that would be great, I really appreciate any effort. Marshal/FNMI, how much maintainance have your systems required, I see the relitive cost varies considerably pending on the unit. Thanks for all the input on these as this is a new territory for us and want to make sure we head down the right path the first time. We are currently looking at about 15,000+ pcs annually, not sure if thats a lot or not much, either way good addition to what we do.

 

Maintenance is minimal. Clean the lenses daily and that's pretty much it. There's a few air filters that need to be cleaned/replaced, but our lasers are in a clean-room already, so there's no dust in there for the filters to pick up