How to Choose the Best Fiber Laser Marking Machine?
When looking for how to choose the best fiber laser marking machine, you may come across a few different types. With all the different options, choosing the right gear can be difficult.
This great new idea can be used in many different ways and is getting a lot of praise for how well it marks metal and plastic. However, many people still have trouble finding the best industrial fiber laser marking machine, especially when purchasing from a company. Most companies don’t have enough information to help you choose what to buy.
Fiber laser engraver is a machine used in many industries to mark metal parts and some plastics. This technology uses a laser beam with an optical fiber as the active gain medium. A fiber laser is a solid-state laser, but it uses optical fibers instead of rods, slabs, or discs. The laser is located between the fibers and comes in different sizes.
What Are the Types of Fiber Lasers?
Each type of fiber laser includes a laser source, laser beam output, lens installation, and laser parameters. Because of this, many different types of fiber lasers have different uses. To get the best results, it is important to choose the right technique.
The Laser Source
The laser source consists of an optical fiber that can be doped with different rare-earth elements to generate different wavelengths. By looking at the laser source and wavelength, you can immediately tell if a fiber laser is right for your application. Let’s look at common examples:
Ytterbium-doped fiber lasers have a wavelength of 1064 nm, making them perfect for working with metals. These are the fiber lasers that Laserx uses to mark and clean metal.
Thulium-doped fiber lasers have a wavelength of 1940 nm and can be used in medicine or for laser marking plastics.
Erbium-doped fiber lasers have a wavelength of 1550 nm and are mostly used in telecommunications. We can get high-speed Internet and voice-over IP from them, but we cannot use them for laser engraving.
Fiber lasers are often used to create light with many different wavelengths. The first thing that needs to be done is to look at the laser source to see what it can be used for. This may prevent you from purchasing something that cannot be engraved on the material you want to use. For example, you may need a CO2 laser marker to mark plastics and other organic materials.
The Laser Beam Output
When purchasing an industrial fiber laser marking machine, you should look at whether the laser beam is pulsed or on all the time. Some industrial laser marking systems can even change between modes.
Let’s look at the different types of beams in more depth:
- The pulsed laser beam has high energy peaks that are perfect for creating permanent scars or creating small holes without melting the area around them.
- Continuous-wave laser beams produce a constant amount of energy, perfect for laser machines that weld, drill or cut.
Lens Configuration and Laser Parameters
Laser specialists determine how to set the parameters of the lens and laser to work best for each material and manufacturing process. Focal length, scanning speed, spot size, marking distance, etc. can all be part of the lens configuration. Beam diameter, beam quality, pulse length, number of passes and more are all parameters.
Laserx’s ytterbium-doped fiber lasers can be set up in different ways that work best for the metal that needs to be engraved.
Choosing a Fiber Laser Marking System
You can use these tips to figure out what type of system you need and how to install it.
- Make a list of what needs to be carved. Fiber lasers can mark many metals such as aluminum, steel, and stainless steel. However, each alloy has properties that alter the way the laser beam interacts with the surface.
- Figure out what information needs to be marked if you need to be able to track it. This information may include weight, part number, mold number, date and time, etc.
- Find out what types of marks these are. These can be codes like text, letters, numbers, logos or data matrix codes.
- Find out how much time is there for marking. Even a rough estimate can help you figure out how much power you need from your laser.
- Think about your laser options. Laser engraving solutions can include a laser safety enclosure, an HMI to easily adjust the laser for different tasks, a dust extraction system, an air knife to prevent dust from accumulating on the lens, and more.
- Find out what IP rating you need. This is because of how industrial fiber laser-marking machines operate in their environment. For example, casting plants require a higher level of safety than assembly lines.
Why Choose a Fiber Laser for Metal Engraving?
Metal engraving does not need to be done with a fiber laser. Other lasers can produce wavelengths similar to these, so they can be used for similar things. So, why would you choose fiber laser?
- Different lasers can be set up in different ways, giving them their own benefits. The following are good things about industrial fiber laser-marking machine:
- Because of their ability to direct light, optical fibers have better beam quality. This means the laser beam is better focused. Because of this, fiber lasers are better at engraving metals.
- They use less power and don’t require much heat management.
- They Are Compact.
They don’t cost much to maintain and don’t require much care, making them perfect for automated production lines. Manufacturers do not require them to be recalibrated to keep them running. The average time between laser source failures is long (100,000 hours). Industrial fiber laser marking machines can operate full-time for over ten years and still produce high quality results.
How Does Fiber Laser Technology Work?
If you know how a laser works, you can make better choices when purchasing a laser. Let’s follow the path of the laser beam to show how each part works. It starts in the laser diode, passes through the optical fiber, and then hits the part to be engraved.
When choosing an industrial fiber laser-marking machine, think about what type of laser source you need and whether the beam needs to be continuous or pulsed. Find out how much time is available for marking and make sure you have other basic information to understand the requirements of your application.