SYNRAD, INC. - http://www.synrad.com  
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Issue 73

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 Flexible Printing Plates

    Flexible printing plates, developed from various plastic or rubber compounds, are used by many companies to print products, cartons, etc., during the manufacturing or packaging process. The flexible plate picks up and holds ink in the engraved areas of the plate and transfers this image to the part or, more commonly, to a transfer roller or pad that then deposits the inked image onto the product. This particular plate material exhibited an engraved, contrasting mark, but in actual practice only an engraved mark is required.

   In this application, a Synrad CO2 laser and FH Series marking head mark images on plastic printing plates. Marking speed and velocity determine the engraved depth of the image, which helps to control ink deposition on the product. The beam was directed through a 125 mm focusing lens, creating a180 micron ( 0.007“) spot size with a 3 mm depth of focus. Optimum mark field size is approximately 2.9” × 2.9” with a maximum marking field of 3.4” × 4.2”. The image shown was marked using 7 watts of power at a velocity of 20 inches per second with a resolution of 375. Total cycle time for the laser mark is 17.12 seconds.

Marking Cardboard

   Marking cardboard, wood, or even paper has always been an excellent CO2 laser application because of the absorption characteristics of these materials. With highly visible dark marks, text and graphic images are easily surface marked and, especially on wood, 3-dimensionally engraved. But until now, creating readable linear (1D) and 2D bar codes on cardboard or wood products has not been possible. The rastered CO2 beam simply engraved the surface without creating enough contrast to be read by most barcode scanners. Enter WinMark Pro’s Spot Marking Style property. The Spot Marking Style marks both vector and bitmap objects using spot pulses instead of continuous lines to create a nicely contrasting mark instead of a non-contrasting engraved line.

This business card size cardboard sample  was marked using a 50W laser and FH Marking Head
in a cycle time of 5 seconds.

Marking Photographic Film

   We obtained engraved marks on film using 8 watts of power delivered by a 125 mm focusing lens at a spot size of 180 microns. Three separate stroke text objects, each 2 mm high, were marked at a velocity of 75 inches per second. Overall cycle time for marking 20 characters spanning an area of 2.125 x 1.25 inches was 0.3 seconds.

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

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