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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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Extruded flat cable is becoming more popular throughout the automotive industry as manufacturers continue to add electronic devices and sensors to increase the safety and efficiency of modern automobiles. Flat cable is important to automotive designers because it allows them to position devices that require many conductors inside tight spaces such as doors, roofs, and even seats. Where traditional round cable diameters can range from 3.2 mm to 6.3 mm (0.125–0.250") or greater, extruded flat cables with equal or greater wire cross-sections have typical thicknesses of only 0.38 mm (0.015"). For this application, the customer asked us to ablate the polyethylene (PE) insulation from specific locations on the cable without damaging the three copper conductors.
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Because copper is reflective to the 10.6 µm CO2 wavelength, wire stripping in general is a perfect application for Synrad sealed CO2 lasers. Careful selection of power and speed parameters ensures that the copper or surrounding insulation is not over-heated or damaged in any way. To complete this application, we set up a Firestar t-Series laser and coupled it to the new FH Flyer marking head. The Flyer head was fitted with a 125 mm high-power lens that provides a 180-micron (0.007") spot over a mark field spanning 80 mm x 99 mm (3.3" x 3.9"). Using our WinMark Pro Laser Marking software, we created two rectangular shapes to be ablated and precisely positioned them using WinMark's four-digit (0.0001") position accuracy. We then set a Power, duty cycle percentage, corresponding to 60 watts and a scanning Velocity of 2286 millimeters per second (90 inches/sec). At these settings, we were able to remove the 0.09 mm (0.003") thick PE coating—a total surface area of 99.32 mm2 (0.154 in2)—in 0.59 seconds. The polyethylene insulation was completely vaporized, leaving a bare copper conductor with no debris, vapor, or thermal damage.
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Manufacturers specify stainless steel for a variety of consumer and industrial products because of its corrosion resistance, durability, and aesthetic appeal. Stainless steel performs well in both high- and low-temperature environments and the ease with which stainless is cleaned and sanitized makes it the ideal choice in the health care, pharmaceutical, and food processing industries. When it comes to marking stainless steels, Firestar t-Series lasers are an excellent choice due to their fast rise/fall times. With rise/fall times less than 75 microseconds |
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To mark this right-angle electrical connector that is stamped from 316 stainless steel, we setup an FH Series marking head with an 80 mm lens to achieve a 116-micron (0.005") spot over a 33 mm by 41 mm (1.3" x 1.6") mark field. In WinMark Pro, we created two text objects and typed a fixed part number for the first part of the code. The second half of the date is a Julian date code (DDDY format) that is set to increment automatically based on the marking computer’s system clock. To format the text string, we chose a stroke font (Simple), set a Text Height of 2.3 mm (0.09"), and added 0.25 mm (0.01") of Extra Character Spacing. At a Power percentage corresponding to 60 watts and a mark Velocity of 165 millimeters per second (6.5 inches/sec), we marked this 10-character text string in a cycle time of 0.22 seconds.
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Ceramic fiber insulation, liners, and gaskets are frequently used in industrial high-temperature vessels such as kilns, furnaces, ovens, and boilers where 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 application test, we setup the cutting head on 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. To minimize edge charring, we used 1.4 bar (20 PSI) of clean, dry air as the assist gas. Because cut speed and edge quality were the two most important factors, we fired the Firestar f400 laser at a power level of 400 watts for these tests. 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”) thick, was cut at a speed of 22.9 meters/minute (900 IPM). We cut a third material thickness, 19.1 mm (0.75”), at a speed of 1.4 meters/minute (55 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 knife or die-cutting operations. |
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Happy Holidays from all of us at Synrad! Our next Applications Newsletter will be sent |
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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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