How to Choose Different Types of Laser Engrave Machines?
The process of coding identification involves assigning text, numbers, symbols, or other shapes to a product or packaging to meet compliance, traceability, production, and branding requirements.
Advantages of Laser Coding Machine:
Its permanence means that the coding does not wear or fade with exposure or over time;
● It supports manufacturers' sustainability goals due to the need for fewer consumables
● Laser machines often require less maintenance, which can improve production line efficiency and uptime;
● It provides excellent coding quality, and can mark high-resolution text, pictures and machine-readable codes;
● It is a highly versatile solution for static coding as well as slow and high-speed production line situations.
How to Choose Different Types of Laser Engraver?
There are many types of laser technology, the common three are carbon dioxide, ultraviolet and optical fiber. Each laser machine is suitable for different materials and applications.
Let's take a look at the key features and applications of each laser technology.
1.CO2 Laser Engrave Machine
Carbon dioxide laser machine is a gas laser machine. The light produced by the CO2 laser machine is invisible and falls in the infrared range of about 10 nm in the spectrum.
CO2 lasers have different powers and wavelengths. This makes CO2 lasers highly versatile, absorbable by a variety of substrates, and ideal for wood, leather, paper and transparent PET coding.
CO2 lasers have an IP65 (dustproof and waterproof) rating, which means they work well in harsh environments such as dairy and beverage production. They also provide excellent human-machine readability on high-speed production lines. They are the ideal solution for the dairy, medical, beverage, food, pharmaceutical, health and beauty and tobacco industries.
2.UV Laser Marking Machine
Like fiber lasers, UV lasers are solid-state lasers, but they use special crystals to produce short-wavelength laser radiation of 355nm, so of the three types, UV lasers have the highest resolution. UV lasers emit high-energy photons that can break chemical bonds in the substrate, resulting in non-thermal process changes in the substrate, meaning that there is no thermal damage or impairment of barrier performance in the inner layer of the laminated flexible film and the area around the coding. This process is called cold coding. This makes the UV laser machine very versatile.
UV laser machines are ideal for a wide range of plastic materials (light and dark) and recyclable materials, especially flexible films (recyclable), white and color HDPE, LDPE and PP.
3. Fiber Laser Engraver
Fiber laser machines use fiber optic cables doped with special atoms to generate and direct light. The resulting laser beam is more precise than CO2 lasers because it has lower divergence and smaller spot size, making it ideal for small, clear, readable codes. Beam characteristics can also be customized to suit different materials and applications. Compared with carbon dioxide laser machine, fiber laser machine also has better energy conversion, low maintenance cost, low operating cost, and less smoke.
Due to their wavelength (1.064nm) and high pulse peak power, the F-series fiber laser machine is ideal for marking metals and producing color changes in plastic materials. It is the ideal solution for beverage and food cans, industry, medical devices, cosmetics and electronics.
