Engraving / Marking

Laser marking includes laser engraving and laser marking. Collectively, it is a broad categorization of methods to make marks on objects. These include, in addition to engraving structures into the material by ablation, color changes due to chemical and molecular changes, carbonization, foaming, melting and much more. Today, laser marking is the most common way of marking items to individualize them by applying logos, brand names, etc. These are permanent markings of an object. Depending on the material, different wavelengths of light are used. The more the irradiated material absorbs the wavelength / frequency, the more efficient is the ablation. Thus, UV lasers are particularly suitable for marking transparent materials. This includes glass, zirconium, polymers or gemstones. Due to their short wavelength, UV lasers also have the advantage that they can achieve very small focus diameters by using suitable optics (focusing) and thus engrave particularly fine structures. These can be characters and numbers (font), logos, perforations or similar. Generated focal planes of the laser within transparent materials also allow marking inside, rather than on the surface of the material. This means that not only 2D but also 3D markings can be performed. With a large number of objects to be marked, automated marking processes are also possible. Depending on size and number, objects can be processed simultaneously or quickly one after the other – with the highest possible precision.