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Process Date: March 2003
Using Synrad CO2 lasers for marking applications in the medical industry is a growing trend, due to the need to eliminate aggressive inks that may pose health risks and are environmentally undesirable. Laser marking provides permanent and sterile identification without introducing any additives or chemicals into the clean room environment. In addition to indelible marks and extraordinary cleanliness, CO2 lasers bring superior precision, better reliability, and low maintenance requirements to the manufacturing process.
In this application, a 10W laser was used to mark polyvinyl chloride (PVC) medical IV bags with pertinent health and safety information. The interaction of CO2 laser energy with the outer PVC material results in a color change from a semi-opaque white to a bright red-orange tint, producing a high contrast between the mark and the surrounding background.
At a power of 10W and velocity of 30 inches per second, the depth of penetration into the 0.015"-thick IV bag is less than 0.0002", since the majority of the laser's energy reacts with the PVC during the chemical color change process. The mark (over 400 characters) was completed in a total cycle time of 11.2 seconds using a text resolution of 400 DPI.
Polyvinyl chloride medical storage bags,
marked with a 10W Synrad CO2 laser. The
marks penetrate only 1.3% of the total material thickness.
The entire mark of 400+ characters took 11.2
sec.
This close-up view of a letter "t" shows
individual scan lines at a resolution optimized for speed.
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