The expanding array of OE (Original Equipment) and aftermarket automotive components offers many opportunities for laser processing during manufacturing. One such solution is provided by laser specialist, Laser Lines.
Most, if not all, of the components used to assemble a modern automobile – rubber, steel, glass, fabric, leather, and various plastics – are easily marked, cut, welded, and drilled using CO2 lasers.
This is one example, an aftermarket oil filter, where a manufacturing code is laser marked on a painted housing.
The mark set-up consists of an FH Series Index marking head, a Synrad laser, and Laser Lines WinMark Pro laser marking software.
A 200mm FH lens provides a 290-micron (0.011in) focused spot with a 5mm (0.196in) depth of focus. To create the static mark text, a text object was created and then on the format tab the font specified was ‘European’, one of WinMark Pro’s 12 built-in stroke fonts. A text height was set to 0.1538in and added 0.025in of extra character spacing.
The last step is to specify marking parameters on WinMark’s Marking tab, the power (duty cycle percentage) was set to correspond to an output power of 25 watts and set a velocity of 15 inches per second. Using these mark parameters, the mark shown was created in a cycle time of 0.22 seconds per part.
When dynamic serial numbers or date/shift codes are required, WinMark is easily configured to mark this information automatically.
