The molded Delrin part above exhibits a crisp, clean engraved mark and requires only 10 watts of power
at a mark velocity of 15 inches per second.

Polyacetal, also called POM or polyoxymethylene, and widely known under the tradename Delrin® is often used to manufacture lightweight parts that often replace heavier metal components. Polyacetal is an engineered thermoplastic polymer that features high wear resistance, high flexure fatigue strength, and excellent dimensional stability. It is easily formed by various molding processes including injection, compression, or blow molding, by extrusion, or by rotational casting.

The requirement for this application is to mark a molded valve body. Because polyacetal produces a slightly contrasting, engraved mark, the identification information is not readily visible (or distracting) to the consumer, but is easily seen on close inspection. The engraved mark is permanent and will not wipe off or smear if exposed to chemicals or cleaners.

To create the text string shown in the photo, we used a Synrad sealed CO₂ laser and an FH Series marking head driven by our WinMark Pro laser marking software. The FH Index head is equipped with a 125 mm lens that provides a 180-micron (0.007”) focused spot with a 3 mm (0.118”) depth of focus spanning a maximum mark area of 85 mm × 105 mm (3.4” × 4.2”).

In WinMark Pro, we created a text object with the desired Text Caption, selected an outlined TrueType® font (Arial) for clarity and set a Text Height of 4.43 mm (0.1745”). On the Marking tab, we set a Velocity of 381 mm/second (15 inches/second) and a Power (PWM duty cycle percentage) corresponding to 10 watts. With these parameters, we marked the 13-character, two-line text string in a cycle time of 0.70 seconds per piece.