Marking Stainless Steel Alignment Gauges

This application demonstrates the ability of CO2 lasers to create high-contrast, permanent marks directly on stainless steel parts. The first batch of these tapered alignment gauges were originally produced on a milling machine that cut V-notches to indicate each index line—a process that added over an hour for each matched set of gauges. Using a Firestar CO2 laser and FH Series marking head, we precisely marked index lines AND dimensions in a cycle time of 21 seconds per set of gauges.

Our marking setup consisted of a Firestar t100 laser, an FH Series marking head, and our WinMark Pro laser marking software. The FH head was equipped with 125 mm HP high-power lens that provides a 180-micron (0.007”) spot with a 3 mm (0.118”) depth of focus. We imported the customer’s DXF file into WinMark Pro at 1:1 using WinMark’s Vector Import Scale property. WinMark Pro’s object placement accuracy of 0.0025 mm (0.0001”) is critical because each index line corresponds to a 0.051 mm (0.002”) increase in the gauge’s taper. To obtain the best mark quality, we created dimension text using European—one of WinMark’s twelve built-in stroke fonts. We set Text Height to 2.54 mm (0.10”) and added 0.19 mm (0.008”) of Extra Character Spacing to aid readability.

We permanently marked these stainless steel
taper gauges using 100 watts of power at a speed
of 1.5 inches per second. The high-contrast mark, containing 190 objects, was completed in
21 seconds.

These optical encoder discs, printed on 15-mil polyester film, are precisely laser-trimmed to
size using 60 watts of power at a speed of
22 inches per second.

Cutting Polyester Mesh Filters

In its fiber form, polyester (PET) is commonly used to manufacture clothing and home furnishings; however, polyester is tough enough to find uses in industrial power transmission and automotive applications (hoses, belting, ropes, and tire cords). PET mesh is also used to manufacture high-performance particulate filters for automotive and industrial equipment.

The accompanying photo shows how a fine polyester mesh material can be laser cut to create specialized filters for hydraulic equipment. For example, this 100 x 100 polyester mesh material is capable of filtering out particles larger than 152 microns (0.006”). Polyester’s high absorptivity at the 10.6 micron CO2 wavelength means it is readily cut at low power using relatively large spot sizes.

Using a focused beam diameter of 540 microns,
this 0.01” thick polyester filter element was
cut with 25 watts of power at a speed of
5 inches per second.