SYNRAD, INC. - http://www.synrad.com  
Thursday, February 5, 2004
Issue 80

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 Circuit Boards

   For the mark in the photo to the left, we created a rectangular 2D Data Matrix code using WinMark Pro laser marking software and sized it to fit within the screen-printed area on the circuit board. An FH-Series marking head equipped with a 125 mm focusing lens provided beam motion for the five watts of CO2 laser power required to ablate the ink. The 49 character 2D code (0.1875" high) was marked using five watts of power at a speed of 15 inches per second (IPS) with a resolution of 200 DPI. The human-readable text object (0.0625" high) contains ten characters and was marked using five watts, 15 IPS with a resolution of 600 DPI. Total cycle time for both objects was 1.45 seconds. Ablating the ink away from the FR4 material provided 20 percent contrast, enough for code verification by an RVSI vision system.

Marking Glass Slides

   An important advantage of CO2 lasers over other laser wavelengths is the ability to mark glass directly, and during the past several years, glass marking has become a growing CO2 application. As opposed to indirect glass marking, where a coating or label is applied and then laser marked to create a permanent, high-contrast mark, direct marking involves focusing the CO2 beam onto the glass and then modulating laser energy to precisely control fracturing of the glass substrate.

    In artistic or decorative operations, laser marking creates frosted or sandblasted images on glass panels while replacing hazardous chemicals and dirty sand blasting environments. In manufacturing operations, CO2 lasers mark automotive safety glass, household windows, and CRT tubes, to name a few of the many CO2 glass marking applications.

   The sample shown here was completed using an FH-Series marking head fitted with a 125 mm lens. Focused spot size is 180 microns with a 3 mm total depth of field. The QR Code was marked using 10 watts of power at a velocity of 20 inches per second (IPS) with two mark passes. Instead of the default bar code raster scan, we set up WinMark Pro to mark each cell using a single spot instead of a raster square. To do this, we set WinMark’s 2D Barcode Bitmap property to No, set Spot Marking Style to Yes and chose a Spot Mark Duration of 10 (1 millisecond). The QR Code was readable using a Microscan Quadrus EZ™ reader. The text object, created using WinMark Pro’s European Stroke font, was marked at 25 IPS using 8 watts of power with a resolution setting of 300. Text Height was 0.125" high and Extra Char Spacing was adjusted to 0.0015”. Both objects marked in a total cycle time of 4.10 seconds.

Cutting Fabric Housing

  The outer 0.055" thick housing, consisting of 50% Nomex and 50% Polyester, was cut from the braided steel hose shown in the photo to the left using a Synrad 25W laser.  To make the cut, the hose was rotated at 100 rpm with the beam stationary and positioned 1" from the hose end.  After the circumference cut was made in 1 revolution, the beam was moved along the length of the housing slicing the material lengthwise to aid in removal.

  To achieve these results we used a Synrad 25W laser with the UC-2000 controller along with 10psi air assist gas.  A 2.5" lens was used to create a spot size of 0.004 inches.

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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