Marking of plastic sleeves

We have designed a system for laser marking of plastic sleeves for a Czech manufacturer. The task was to design a laser that would allow fast and contrasting marking of products with the necessary information, and in the future also marking with a barcode or QR code. The laser must be variable enough to allow marking of several types and sizes of products, but especially to achieve contrasting marking on different coloured sleeves. At the same time, the customer places emphasis on the price/utility ratio of the laser and the high throughput of the application.

After testing in our laboratory, the Coherent PowerLine F50 Varia laser subsystem in the following configuration was selected as the most suitable laser to meet all customer requirements:

PowerLine F laser

• The PowerLine F laser range includes innovative fibre lasers with different power ranges. All systems provide pulse energy of 1 mJ with fast on time and high peak power over a wide range of repetition rates. The average emitted power of the laser can be adjusted using a fiber amplifier.
• The adjustable pulse width of the PowerLine F 20 Varia & F 50 Varia lasers ensures perfect results even in demanding applications.
• Specific versions of the product range are available for applications in the semiconductor industry (e.g. PowerLine F IC) and document security (PowerLine F PC).

Key features

• Different power ranges and operating frequencies for individual products
• Completely air-cooled
• Low operating costs
• Compact laser solution
• Optionally also available in TwinHead version for higher throughput

Conclusion

Thanks to the wide range of beam parameter settings, the PowerLine F50 Varia laser achieves contrast marking even at relatively high speeds. Compared to the reference marking, there is less coloration within the white, but the overall work speed is much higher.

Using the Coherent PowerLine 50 Varia can reduce cycle time by ~2x. The target cycle time of 1 s can only be achieved for the black sample, for other colours the estimated cycle time is 1.4 - 2.0 s. For testing a hatched font was used, if the contrast of the marking is less important than the cycle time, a 3 or 4 line font can be used.