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SYNRAD, INC. - http://www.synrad.com |
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SYNRAD's sealed CO2 lasers are used in a variety of industrial processes including cutting, welding, drilling, and marking. This news brief showcases some of the interesting materials and products that are processed daily by Synrad's line of CO2 lasers and marking heads. |
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For centuries, the traditional wine cork has had two basic purposes: keeping wine in the bottle and keeping oxygen out. However, in this age of advertising perhaps we could add a third purpose—branding. Wine manufacturers have branded their corks for years; however laser marking adds yet another dimension. In addition to providing consistent branding over long production runs, a laser marker allows a winery to mark or brand cork for short runs, produce custom cork for special events (like weddings or birthdays), or generate limited edition labeling. You can laser mark wine corks with any combination of text or logos, serial numbers, and even date codes. For this application, the winery requested that we mark a bitmap graphic. Although natural cork exhibits many useful properties including non-permeability and heat insulation, the most useful feature for our purposes is that cork marks well at very low power.
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Our test setup included a Synrad sealed CO2 laser, an FH Series marking head, and a copy of our WinMark Pro laser marking software. After installing a 125 mm focusing lens, which provides a 180-micron (0.007”) spot with a 3 mm (0.118”) depth of focus, we created a new 125 mm drawing file in WinMark Pro and then imported a bitmap image of a grape leaf. On WinMark’s Marking tab, we set a Power (duty cycle percentage) corresponding to 10 watts and a mark Velocity of 1905 millimeters per second (75 inches/sec). At these settings, we marked this particular grape image in a cycle time of 4.0 seconds per cork. The lightly engraved mark displays well in sharp contrast to the cork’s natural color. During this trial, we also marked several variations of the winery’s logo and achieved cycle times of 1.37 seconds per mark for their filled TrueType image. |
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Inconel® is a type of nickel-based superalloy that contains substantial amounts of nickel and chromium. Depending on the particular blend, Inconel may contain other elements including titanium, aluminum, molybdenum, or niobium. Parts manufactured from Inconel are commonly found in aerospace or chemical processing applications where extreme heat and corrosion resistance is paramount to the integrity of the end product. This customer application calls for cutting thin sections of large-diameter, thin-wall Inconel tubing. Each ring section is cut from a 114.3 mm (4.5”) diameter tube with a wall thickness of 0.254 mm (0.010”). Because each cut piece is less than 1.37 mm (0.054”) wide, non-contact CO2 laser cutting is the optimal choice for the manufacturing process as mechanical cutting methods lead to ring distortion as well as edge deformation. |
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The cutting setup consists of a Firestar f400 laser, standard beam delivery components (featuring a 2.5” positive meniscus optic to achieve a 100-micron spot), and a rotary stage that spins the tubing mandrel. Each ring is cut with 400 watts of power using 17.2 bar (250 PSI) of nitrogen gas assist. The combination of tubing diameter and rotational speed equates to a linear cut speed of 3.58 meters per minute (141 inches/min). As shown in the photograph, the high-pressure nitrogen assist helps to create a clean edge with only a very slight amount of dross present.
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Since the introduction of our high-power Firestar f-Series lasers with their superior beam quality, steel cutting—mild and stainless—is a job these lasers perform all day, every day, across the globe. However, in addition to cutting steel, our CO2 lasers and FH Series marking heads are also quite capable of marking high-contrast text, 2D codes, or logos on these same materials. To demonstrate, we created a nine-character text object in WinMark Pro. On the Format tab, we chose to use Simple, one of WinMark’s twelve built-in stroke fonts, and then set a Text Height of 4 mm (0.16”). On the Marking tab, we set a Power (duty cycle percentage) corresponding to 100 watts and a marking Velocity of 25.4 millimeters per second (1 inch/sec). |
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In this case, a Firestar t100 laser provided the power, but an f100 laser would work equally as well. When changing laser families, just remember to verify that the correct beam expander is installed on the input side of the marking head. On the output side of the FH Series head, we installed a 125 mm HP (high power) lens that provides a 180-micron (0.007”) focused spot with a 3 mm (0.118”) depth of focus over the extents of the mark field. Using these parameters, we created a permanent, high-contrast mark on the hardened stainless steel jaws of this digital caliper. Two lines of text consisting of nine characters were marked in a cycle time of 3.0 seconds.
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Search our online library for more applications of Synrad's sealed CO2 laser technology. Sort by material, process, or industry. |
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Synrad, Inc. 4600 Campus Place Mukilteo, WA 98275 Tel: 1-425-349-3500 Fax: 1-425-349-3667 E-mail: synrad@synrad.com |
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SYNRAD and Synrad product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of SYNRAD, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
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