A great example of deep laser engraving/marking for the automotive industry.
Back in 2008, we began working with a model maker called Synapse. Most of the initial work covered high end prototyping for manufacturers such as Aston and Bentley.
The item in the image forms part of the vehicle cockpit, and provides the concept guys with parts that could be touched, looked at and modified to suit. Deep laser engraving/marking lends itself to this application. The objective was to use a deep laser engraving technique, that allowed the model makers to infill, using various inks in order to replicate night/day button detail. In this instance probably in the region of 0.2-0.3 mm.
With the depths of this design, the difficulty is removing the material, while ensuring that the top surface is not damaged in any way. Deep engraving aluminium raisures, can form around the edge of the mark, when too much power is used during the process to keep costs down. In this instance, the process was run at a lower power using multiple passes, thus ensuring that raisures are kept to a minimum (the raisure is a small burr that forms around the engraving where the energy pushes non vapourised materials up).
In this application, we used a flash lamp Nd:YAG laser where you can select the mode structure, in order to match the spot size and power density to the material and application. Today the same job could be facilitated by a pulsed fibre laser, probably in the 50-70 watt zone.
The operating software allows the creation of automatically setting multiple passes for parts of the job or all of it. This allows for the careful removal of materials without burning or heat distortion.
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
