As you can see the product is a baby dummy. The customer in question owned their own business, promoting baby things from home over the internet, and was looking for novel ideas to help promotion of the services. The idea being customers could order the units and have their baby’s name laser marked as shown.
There are a number of differing changes to the material surface during laser marking, and it is very dependent on the material itself as to which one occurs.
- A thermochemical foaming, creating gas bubbles to the surface of the material, is the most common. The light scatters across the affected area, producing the light marking that appears.
- Bleaching is another effect that is common. Here, the pigment used to achieve the product colour is removed creating a visual difference.
- The third mechanism is vaporisation, where the material is heated very quickly, to the point where it vaporises and is removed leaving behind the created image.
These three laser marking effects, can be enhanced by the adding of laser sensitive additives and can generate considerable advantages. The additive acts as an abortion barrier, boosting the ability of the laser to process better. In some materials, the laser marking ability would not be possible without this additive.
The trials worked very well, with the plastic materials laser marking using the ND:YAG unit. The plastic burnt creating an oxidisation to the surface hence the dark mark. The absorption of the laser wavelength was greatly enhanced, by the colour pigment used in the product. The materials can also be marked using CO2, but the contrast levels are greatly reduced. There are no additives in this product to enhance marking. The product was purchased straight off the high street from a well known brand name.
If you would like further information on this laser marking application, or any other application, please request a call back, or talk to one of our laser marking specialists on 01737 826902.
