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Marking curved glass surfaces

Laser Lines has revealed details of an unusual application of marking curved glass components using the Synrad sealed CO­2 lasers it distributes. Glass marking, the company says, continues to fuel expansion in the market for CO2 lasers. Although most glass marking applications are within the automotive industry, the company cites many applications for marking glass bottles and other decorative consumer items.

To test the feasibility of marking perfume bottles, a basic marking configuration was set-up using a Synrad sealed CO­2 laser (a Firestar v-Series model), an FH Series marking head, and WinMark Pro laser marking software. Ten different stroke text objects were created spanning seven lines of text comprised of 73 characters - all in a space measuring 9.91 x 8.45mm. Individual text height values were in the 1.0-2.0mm height range, and in some cases 0.1mm of extra character spacing was added.

To mark the concave surface of the bottle, a power percentage corresponding to 12W was set, along with a marking velocity of 1000mm per second and a resolution value of 750. The change in bottle curvature across the mark width was approximately 1.5, so the company raised the point of focus to 0.75mm above the lowest point of the curve, assuring that the mark occurred within the nominal depth of focus. The mark was produced in a cycle time of 0.54 seconds per part.

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