SYNRAD, INC. - http://www.synrad.com  
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Issue 123
 

Marking Alumina
Ceramic Components

Cutting Ceramic
Fiber Paper
Marking Hardened
Stainless Steel

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 Alumina
Ceramic Components

Alumina ceramic components are found in many fields from medical (knee and hip joints) to industrial (pump seals, abrasive nozzles, and tool inserts) to electronics (sensors and capacitors). Alumina ceramic is second only to diamond in hardness and the addition of zirconia during manufacturing serves to increase fracture resistance and material strength as well.

The requirements for this project were to laser mark a readable, contrasting 18-digit part identification code on an alumina ceramic component measuring 25.4 mm by 12.8 mm (1.0” x 0.5”). The marking system was setup with an FH Series marking head fitted with a 125 mm lens to obtain a 180-micron (0.007”) focused spot with a 3 mm (0.118”) depth of focus.





Using 60 watts of power we achieved a nicely
contrasting mark on an Alumina ceramic component.

We created a text string measuring 2.9 mm (0.115”) high in WinMark Pro and could easily configure this text string to automatically increment serial numbers and date code information in real-time if required. To speed part throughput, we chose one of WinMark’s twelve built-in stroke fonts, European, for the text, but could have easily chosen any TrueType font residing in the marking computer’s Fonts folder.

At a Power level of 60 watts and a marking Velocity of 8 inches per second (IPS), the part was marked in a cycle time of 0.67 seconds. In applications where cycle times are not as important, comparable marks are possible using 25 watts (4 IPS) or 10 watts (1 IPS) with cycle times of 1.3 seconds and 4.6 seconds respectively.



Cutting Ceramic Fiber Paper

Ceramic fiber insulation, liners, or gaskets are used in industrial high-temperature vessels such as kilns, furnaces, ovens, and boilers were they must withstand continuous temperatures up to 1200 °C (2200 °F). Depending on the thickness of the finished material, a particular ceramic product may be categorized as a paper, felt, or blanket.

For this feasibility test, we setup our XY table with a 63.5 mm (2.5”) positive meniscus optic that produces a 100 micron (0.004”) focused spot with a 1.8 mm (0.07”) depth of focus. We used 20 PSI of CDA (clean, dry air) as the gas assist.

We cut the first ceramic fiber paper thickness, 1.6 mm (0.0625”), at a linear speed of 45.7 meters per minute (1800 inches per minute). The second paper material, measuring 3.2 mm (0.125”) was cut at a speed of 22.9 meters/minute (900 IPM). The ceramic fiber exhibits some charring of the cut edge due to the laser’s chemical degradation cut method, however this is more than offset by the flexibility of the laser process when compared to die cutting operations.






1.6mm thick




3.2mm thick



Marking Hardened Stainless Steel

With the introduction of our f-Series lasers and their superior beam quality, cutting mild and stainless steels is a job these lasers perform all day, every day, throughout the world. What you may not know however, is that in addition to cutting mild and stainless steels, our CO2 lasers and FH Series marking heads are also very adept at creating high-contrast readable marks on these same materials.

We created a nine-character text object in WinMark Pro, using the Simple stroke font, and set a Text Height of 4 mm (0.16”). For beam delivery out 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. Using 100 watts of Power at a marking Velocity of 1 inch per second, we created a permanent, high-contrast mark in 3.0 seconds.







The photo shows an example of a CO2 laser
mark on a hardened stainless steel caliper body.


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