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Laser Marking Bricks |
Cutting Wood with the Firestar f400
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Marking Small Linear Barcodes
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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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Laser Marking Bricks
Red clay-based bricks are used in a wide variety of construction projects, including building facades and walkways. CO2 laser marking provides a permanent, engraved mark on brick that can withstand weathering in harsh outdoor environments.
A common marking application is the addition of donor names on charity foundation plaques, memorials, and walkways for display purposes. These projects are well suited for laser marking because they require a large number of varying individual marks, and the process must be easily automated to mark the high volume of bricks. In this example, SYNRAD's FH Flyer marking head can read sequential mark data from a text file on a connected PC or network drive. Each line of text in the file contains an individual name, and after each mark is complete, Flyer automatically marks the next line of text in the file.
This particular application setup consisted of a SYNRAD 100 W laser and an FH Flyer marking head equipped with a 200 mm focal length lens. This choice provided a focused spot size of 290 µm (0.011") on the brick surface and a maximum mark field size of 134 mm x 165 mm (5.3" x 6.5") that allows large mark areas on the brick surface. The mark file contained 15.2 mm (0.6") high filled Arial TrueType text objects. The Resolution for these text objects was set to 1000 scan lines per inch and the mark Velocity was set to 190.5 mm/sec (7.5 in/sec).
The resulting high-resolution mark was completed in a cycle time of 6 minutes per brick. The mark is slightly engraved, with nice dark contrast. The silica in the brick surface melts and turns into a thin glass film creating a durable, slightly shiny mark surface.
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This commemorative brick was laser marked using 100 watts of power at a velocity of 7.5 inches per second.
View of the slightly engraved, high-contrast, glassy mark produced by CO2 laser marking.
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Cutting Wood with the Firestar f400
Many industrial laser processes involve cutting, marking, drilling, or welding various steel or plastic materials. However, products manufactured from wood are also ideal candidates for CO2 laser processing. Some of these applications include creating complex hardwood puzzle pieces, precisely grooving birch or maple dieboard for die cutting operations, and cutting out the intricate balsa wood components used in model kits.
Because laser cutting wood is a chemical degradation process (where the wood fiber is burned away and removed from the cut area by pressurized assist gas), cut edges are usually charred at the surface, but little to no discoloration is seen on adjoining faces.
The largest problem when cutting wood by any method is moisture content and density - dry, lightweight woods cut easily while dense or moisture-laden woods cut more slowly. For laser cutting operations, consistent storage conditions and moisture control procedures are crucial to obtaining repeatable results.
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This intricate gear shape was cut from 0.50" thick walnut hardwood using 400 watts of power at a speed of 85 inches per minute.
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To illustrate the capability of our Firestar f400 laser, we cut this gear shape from a piece of 12.7 mm (0.50") thick walnut hardwood. Our setup consisted of an XY "flying optics" cutting head equipped with a 63.5 mm (2.5") positive meniscus lens that provides a 100-micron (0.004") focused spot and a 1.8 mm (0.07") depth of focus. Pressurized air assist, at 2.07 bar (30 PSI) was supplied through the nozzle to the work surface.
Using 400 watts of power, we cut out the pattern shown at a rate of 2.16 meters per minute (85 in/min) in a cycle time of 29 seconds. Although the laser-cut tooth faces exhibit some surface charring, both top and bottom surfaces are clean and free of discoloration.
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Marking Small Linear Bar Codes
Although 2D code formats like Data Matrix and QR Code are popular because of their large data capacity and extremely compact size, linear barcodes (Code 128, Code 3 of 9, etc.) are still widely used because of the large installed base of handheld barcode readers and their corresponding inventory and/or database programs.
The primary issue seen when marking linear codes is lack of space on small parts. Reducing physical code size often leads to the loss of thin spaces between thin and thick bars due to overburning or meltback of the material being marked. For this customer, the two-part solution involved (1) using a laser-markable label that holds fine mark detail, yet exhibits no overburning or meltback, and (2) installing an 80 mm lens to achieve a smaller focused spot size.
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This Code 128 linear barcode (measuring 0.49" x 0.07") and human-readable text were marked in only 0.27 seconds using 10 watts of power at a speed of 58 inches per second.
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The customer's application required a Code 128 barcode, with human-readable text, on a self-adhesive label measuring only 16 mm by 5 mm (0.63" x 0.20"). To do this, we started by fitting our FH Flyer marking head with an 80 mm lens to provide a 116-micron (0.005") diameter spot. In WinMark Pro, we created a Code 128 barcode containing nine alphanumeric characters at a Barcode Height of 1.9 mm (0.075") with a Barcode Thin Width of 0.14 mm (0.0056"), a Barcode Resolution of 500, and a Barcode Thick To Thin Ratio of 3:1. On the Marking tab, we set a Velocity of 1473 millimeters per second (58 in/sec) at a Power percentage corresponding to 10 watts. The human-readable text string below the barcode was created using WinMark's European stroke font at a Text Height of 0.635 mm (0.025") with 0.635 mm (0.025") of Extra Character Spacing. Mark parameters were the same as for the barcode object.
Using these parameters, we marked the barcode and human-readable text objects on laser-markable labels at a rate of 0.27 seconds per label. Even at this very small label size, the codes are easily read with a handheld barcode scanner.
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FH Flyer / Fenix Flyer Technical Updates
Synrad Technical Updates keep you informed of recent developments related to FH Flyer Marking Head or Fenix Flyer Laser Marker products. Sign up to receive these bulletins automatically via email at http://www.synrad.com/FH_Flyer/flyersupport_subscribe.htm
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Contact Us:
Please do not reply directly to this newsletter. E-mail questions or comments to synrad@synrad.com
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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Copyright ©2010 SYNRAD, Inc. All rights reserved.
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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