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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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Nylon webbing is used in many applications for restraining, supporting, and securing loads including people, pets, livestock, and cargo. The seat belt/shoulder harness assemblies in your automobile are the most common usage, but other household products incorporating nylon webbing include pet leashes and horse halters, backpack and climbing harnesses, as well as carrying straps for camera bags and computer cases. When cut with a CO2 laser, nylon webbing exhibits a cleanly cut edge with a slight amount of melt-back. Individual strands in the nylon weave are sealed to one another across the cut edge, which eliminates the possibility of fraying or unraveling during use. Because of manufacturing constraints and the need to process multiple rows of webbing over a large area, the customer asked us to set up a Flyer marking head equipped with a 370 mm lens, instead of using an XY table with a short focal length lens and gas assist. Each row of webbing, which measures 1.27 mm (0.050”) thick and 47.63 mm (1.875”) wide, requires three cuts—two 6 mm (0.236”) diameter bolt holes and a straight-line cut across the belting at the proper length.
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After laying out the exact dimensions in WinMark Pro, we entered a cut Velocity of 57.15 millimeters per second (2.25 inches/sec) and set a Power, duty cycle percentage, corresponding to 90 watts. At these settings, we processed each belt section in a cycle time of 1.8 seconds per row. As shown in the photos, cut edges are clean and sealed with light melt-back of nylon fibers in the cut area.
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Ten years ago, pioneering research in SYNRAD’s Applications Lab led to an understanding of the variables involved in glass marking that created a large world-wide market for CO2 glass marking. This breakthrough was especially remarkable because glass marking was thought to be outside the domain of CO2 lasers due to the tendency of glass to fracture from thermal stresses brought on by its high absorption of CO2 radiation and its high thermal coefficient of expansion. For most glass marking applications, the recommended focusing optic is our FLA125 mm lens that provides a 180-micron (0.007”) spot. At this spot size, a laser output power of 25 watts and scan speeds of 381–762 millimeters per second (15–30 inches/second) generally provide chip-free micro-fracture marks with line widths (fracture widths) around 0.4 mm (0.016”). Our Applications Lab has recently developed another approach to glass marking using a combination of large spot size, high power, and very slow scan speeds. This method creates what we call a “sealed fracture” because micro-fracture edges at the surface are re-melted into the glass by the beam’s diffuse power density and slow scan speed. To create the mark shown, we fitted our Flyer head with a 370 mm lens that provides a 540-micron (0.021”) diameter focused spot across the mark field. The imported graphic, measuring 102 mm by 110 mm (4.02” x 4.33”) was marked using 60 watts of power at a scan velocity of 127 millimeters per second (5 inches/sec) in an overall cycle time of nine seconds. One important consideration before developing this type of mark is line width. When using a 370 mm lens, micro-fracture width is increased from 0.4 mm to approximately 1.22 mm (0.048”). As a general rule when laser marking text characters, the text height should be 7–10 times the spot diameter; so when using this mark method, text height values should be no lower than 8.5 mm (0.336”) to ensure proper legibility. |
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Corrugated paperboard is used for packaging or padding items that require additional protection during shipment. Singleface corrugated board is manufactured by bonding liner board to one side of a fluted corrugating medium. For this application, we were asked to cut different weights of singleface paperboard at line speeds of 9.14 meters per minute (360 inches/min). Because the customer needed to cut a variety of thicknesses including both 21-pound and 33-pound corrugated board, we setup our XY beam delivery system with a 190 mm (7.5”) lens that provides a 305-micron (0.012") spot with a 13.7 mm (0.54") depth of focus. We achieved cleanly cut edges with minimal charring using 0.34 bar (5 PSI) of nitrogen assist gas. To meet the line speed requirement of 9.14 meters per minute (360 inches/min), we used 109 watts of power to cut the 21-pound sample, which consists of 9.5 mm (0.375") high flutes on 19 mm (0.75") centers. The 33-pound corrugated board, consisting of 12.7 mm (0.5") high flutes on 25.4 mm (1.0") centers, was cut using 142 watts of power. Both corrugated board samples produced clean cuts with minimal edge charring.
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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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