This safety device is a flame arrester, used in the petrochemical industry in the case of an emergency.
The stainless steel device, has complex legal and technical information requirements around the circumference, is made even more difficult by the fact the diameters are all different. In this instance, we have used an Nd:YAG laser with a 254 output lens. This means we can set the focal position on the middle diameter, leaving us to mark across all diameters without further focal changes. This ensures the best commercial pricing can be achieved.
The laser is run in CW mode (continuous mode), resulting in this blackening of the material surface providing a very high contrast level. Single stroke characters are used for two reasons. One, is to help hold the price down, but the more important one, in this instant is to save real estate on the product.
A rotary indexer is used to supply the drive on the rotary axis as the marking takes place.
Today, a fibre laser could be used to achieve the same quality of mark, and in theory would probably process slightly faster than this older technology.
If you would like further information on this laser application, or any other application, please request a call back or talk to one of our laser marking specialists on 01737 826902.
