Newsletter 138: Marking Glass, Cutting Polyethylene, WinMark Pro V4.0 User Guide

SYNRAD, INC. - http://www.synrad.com
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Issue 138


Marking Float Glass	Cutting Polyethylene Sheets	WinMark Pro Version 4.0 User Guide Released

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.

Marking Float Glass

This sample design was created as a marketing piece to demonstrate the versatility of CO₂ laser marking on glass as compared to traditional sandblasting methods. Synrad lasers are currently used by many major glass manufacturers to mark their automotive, commercial, industrial, and residential glass products in part because CO₂ lasers eliminate the need for consumables, templates, and masking. Need to change mark data for another product or customer? Your equipment operator can accomplish this changeover in a matter of seconds by simply opening another mark file using our WinMark Pro Laser Marking Software.

The sample above shows the quality and flexibility
of laser marking glass using Synrad lasers.

For glass marking, a 125 mm focusing lens with its 180-micron (0.007”) spot and a 3-mm (0.118”) depth of focus provides the best combination of character detail and overall field size. All text for this project was created within WinMark Pro using ‘Simple’, one of our twelve built-in stroke fonts. We set a Power (duty cycle percentage) level corresponding to 25 watts, a mark Velocity of 635 mm/second (25”/sec), and a Resolution of 1000. The Synrad logo is a vector graphic (.PLT format) that was imported into WinMark Pro and set to mark using 25 W at 1524 mm/second (60”/sec) with a Resolution setting of 1000. The palm tree is a clip art graphic in a bitmap (.BMP) format that was imported into WinMark and marked using 15 W at 3810 mm/second (150”/sec). To prevent any fracturing caused by overscanning, we lowered the bitmap Resolution to 143 (the inverse of the 0.007” spot size) and made two (2) Mark Passes.

The complete image shown in the photograph was completed in a cycle time of 8.97 seconds per part. We created a more typical glass mark by eliminating the bitmap and large text object. In this case, the vector logo and Low-E glass information is marked using the parameters described above in a cycle time of only 1.34 seconds per part.

Cutting 12-Mil Polyethylene Sheets

Polyethylene sheeting is used to manufacture films for product packaging as well as consumer products like vapor barriers, shower curtains, and tarpaulins. For this application, we were asked to determine the cut speed and quality of 12-mil (0.3 mm) thick polyethylene sheeting using our Firestar f-Series 100-watt laser.

We setup the cutting head on our XY table with a 63.5 mm (2.5”) positive meniscus lens to obtain a 100-micron (0.004”) focused spot with a 1.8 mm (0.07”) depth of focus. To aid cut quality and prevent lens damage caused by the vaporizing plastic, we applied 2.8 bar (40 PSI) of breathing grade air coaxially with the beam.

For this application, we cut 12-mil thick clear
PE sheeting using 100 watts at a speed of
6.35 meters per minute (250 inches per min).

For the 12-mil thick clear PE sheeting, we achieved cut speeds of 6.35 meters per minute (250 inches/min) at a power level of 100 watts. The laser cut is clean, showing no signs of vapor deposition, with very slight melt-back of the edge.

WinMark Pro Version 4.0 User Guide Released

We have just released a new PDF version of our WinMark Pro Laser Marking Software User Guide. This comprehensive document covers every detail from Installation to Marking Basics to our advanced ActiveMark (ActiveX/OLE) Technology. In addition, we’ve included handy Tips throughout the text that describe various methods for using WinMark Pro’s powerful Drawing and Object properties to achieve your marking goals. All of WinMark Pro’s properties and commands, up to and including those in our latest release—4.6.0.4999, are presented and illustrated.

Many new features are built into our Version 4.X releases. These include:

· Vector-style 2D codes

·  Multiple language support

·  Extended Stroke fonts character sets

· Improved bitmap import functionality

·   "Explode” & edit imported vector objects

·   Eight-bit (256 level) Grayscale marking

·  On-line link to our Laser Marking FAQ

Download your copy of the WinMark Pro User Guide today from the Synrad web site at: http://www.synrad.com/Manuals/winmarkpro.htm,

or the WinMark Pro web site at:
http://www.winmark.com/Product Manuals.htm.

Two versions of the manual are available—a 12.5 MB high-resolution PDF that allows you to print a high-resolution color copy or a smaller 2.9 MB low-resolution version that is optimized for screen display and low-res printing.

Browse Synrad's Applications Database

Search our online library for more applications of Synrad's sealed CO₂ laser technology. Sort by material, process, or industry.
http://www.synrad.com/search_apps/Default.htm

Contact Us:

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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