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.

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.

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