Parts Marking Guarantees Traceability and Quality Control
The integration of part marking solutions brings several advantages including durability and longevity.
Posted: January 24, 2024
Part marking solutions, including those that use lasers in the production process, enhance efficiency and cost-effectiveness by aligning with sustainability goals by minimizing waste, improving energy efficiency, and ensuring compliance with industry regulations.
Teach Function Offers Additional Features; Consistently Produce High Quality Marks
Kwik Mark Inc.’s (McHenry, IL) Dot Peen Marker — manufactured in the U.S. — gives the user the ability to place high quality marks on products consistently and quickly, allowing users to be more productive.
Kwik Mark’s patented iTeach Jog and Teach Function allows companies to use the marking tip as a “pointer” to define the text path. iTeach now has more features, upgraded controls and more memory. No prints or part dimensions required. No measuring or layout tools needed. And no programming experience is necessary. It really is that simple.
- Mark Text on a Radius – Touch any three points along an arc or hole and the machine will automatically figure out the radius, starting/ending angles and place the text perfectly on this radius.
- Mark Text on an Angle – Touch any two points along the angle/edge and the machine will automatically figure out the angle and place the text perfectly along this angle.
- Mark Text Within a Defined Area – Touch two opposite corners of a rectangle and the machine will automatically fit the text (both height & width) within this rectangle.
- Mark Text in Several Defined Locations – Touch one point per line of text to define the starting point of your text line and the machine will automatically set the X-Y position for the line.
Delivering Part Marking Solutions that Improve Productivity
MB Metal Technologies (Milwaukee, WI) helps customers with tag and part marking tasks across a wide variety of industries and many various applications. One of the most common applications is permanent pin marking of tags. Be it for trailers, HVAC, industrial products, electrical, oil, gas, or any other number of industries that require permanent tags to be affixed to their products.
The MarkinBOX 1010 offers a large marking area of 100 mm-x-100 mm, and easy to use software that allows customers to easily set up their tags, and make consistent, permanent marking on a wide variety of tags, made of aluminum, steel, stainless steel, brass, plastic, and so on.
The MarkinBOX 1010, used in conjunction with the MB1010 Universal Tag Plate, allows customers to easily set up a program for their standardized tags, use the MB1010 Pin Marker to permanently mark their tags, and easily repeat the tag marking process for all of their tag marking needs.
Industrial Fiber Laser Marker in a Suitcase
Rocklin Manufacturing’s (Sioux City, Iowa) MobiLase® ensures fiber laser marking from anywhere. MobiLase is an all-in-one, portable fiber laser marking unit housed in a 45-lb. rolling suitcase. While laser marking units are typically large, heavy, stationary machines, the lightweight MobiLase opens up a world of possibilities for industrial strength laser marking to be completed anywhere. With MobiLase, laser marking can now be brought directly to the part instead of transporting parts to a laser marking station. This innovation eliminates costly downtime and investments in elaborate contraptions to mark large parts.
Featuring a powerful, 30-watt fiber laser and a large, 100-x-100 mm marking window, MobiLase delivers fast and durable laser markings on nearly any material ranging from plastics to steel to precious metals, among many others. The 7-lb. handheld applicator is equipped with a trigger to start marking plus two bracket options for ease of marking various part shapes. These brackets also enable rapid focusing from a consistent, repeatable distance, which is further optimized by the laser pointer simulator. An optional laser stand enables rapid conversion to a tabletop unit when a stationary setup is desired.
User-friendly software on the touchscreen PC embedded in the suitcase supports a wide range of easily programmable and potentially intricate markings, including:
- Numbers, Letters, Characters
- Time & Date
- Barcodes, 2D Codes, QR Codes
- Images, Logos, Symbols, & More
The MobiLase laser source features up to a 100,000-hour marking lifetime with no maintenance required, and it is fully supported out of Sioux City, Iowa.
Ultra-short Pulse Marking Lasers Make Production Cost-effective and Sustainable
The high-tech company TRUMPF (Farmington, CT) is making medical technology more sustainable and cost-effective with its new TruMicro Mark 1020 marking laser. The particularly precise ultra-short pulse technology is designed to meet the highest demands of medical technology and the aerospace industry and can also be used in materials processing.
With the TruMicro Mark 1020, medical technology manufacturers can mark their products three-dimensionally with very short pulses without much material heating. Even on complex, three-dimensional surfaces, a so-called micro-nano structuring is produced, and this becomes visible by capturing the light. As a result, the marking appears deep black from all the angles and is easy to read. Experts refer to this as blackmarking. This application is particularly important for medical technology manufacturers. Their products are traceable thanks to the marking and at the same time can be reused for a particularly long time.
The aerospace industry also relies on “cold” marking. This industry has strict requirements for the so-called structural modification of materials. The marking process must not impair the structure and strength of the components under any circumstances. Otherwise, in the worst case, components of aircraft or rockets could break. The TruMicro Mark 1020 ultra-short pulse laser enables this “cold” black marking process on complex 3D surfaces made of metal.
Users can not only mark with the TruMicro Mark 1020, but also cut, drill or structure materials such as metal, glass, ceramics or plastics. This is possible thanks to the laser’s very high peak pulse powers. The permanent measurement and documentation of the laser power ensures marking and processing quality that can be tracked at any time. This function is important for quality assurance.
Large companies can easily integrate the TruMicro Mark 1020 into their line production. This is made possible by the laser’s modular design and compact dimensions. Because the TruMicro Mark 1020 has all the common industrial interfaces, it is suitable for use in networked manufacturing. Users can expand the TruMicro Mark 1020 into a complete solution, for example with the TruMark Station.
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