Ease and Affordability of Fiber Laser Marking Systems

LAKE MARY, FL – December 2005 – Industrial manufacturers are taking notice of an emerging technology in cutting and marking applications. Fiber laser systems, which are more reliable, cost-effective and efficient than traditional technologies, are now replacing CO2 and YAG lasers for marking, cutting and engraving applications. Laser Photonics’ latest innovation in fiber laser systems, the FiberTower™ Series, is a safe, state-of-the-art, low-cost alternative for Nd:YAG lasers commonly used for direct part marking applications.

The fiber laser marking system is also available as a convenient hand-held system, which is so portable it can operate on a 12-volt car battery—just plug it in to your car’s cigarette lighter adapter. In addition, the FiberTower™ systems are available to rent or rent-to-own. This reduces the up-front cost of investing in the purchase of a unit, thus freeing up resources for other manufacturing needs.

Permanent marking for product identification and traceability is being used in many industries. The FiberTower™ systems are used in a variety of marking and cutting applications including ITO Removal, IC Chip Package Marking, 2D Symbologies & Linear Barcodes, Alphanumerics, Logos, Serial Numbers, Part Numbers, Date Codes, Data Matrix Codes, Surface Etching and Annealing, Ablation, Graphics and more. Fiber lasers are used to process many materials such as stainless steel, aluminum, carbide, polycarbonate, titanium, nickel, PVC, plastics, rubber, chrome, backlit and radio buttons, auto and aerospace cockpits, etc.

Advantages of our systems over Nd:Yag and CO2 lasers include:

• Greater reliability: up to 100,000 hours MTBF (mean time before failure) versus 500 hours for Nd:Yag and CO 2 lasers
• Savings in consumables such as lamps and diode packs that can cost $5000- $12,000
• Reduced power consumption averaging $40/year at 170 W/hr, versus $1400/year at 6 kW/hr for Nd:Yag lasers
• No maintenance, cleaning, alignments, or chillers, versus high maintenance of Nd:Yag lasers that require optical path adjustments to optimize power output, periodic replacement of lamps, diode packs and solid state crystals, factory trained technicians, continual cleaning, and replacement and alignment of laser mirrors.
• Increased power efficiency up to 50%, versus 2-3% with Nd:Yag/CO 2 lasers.
• Consistent, round beam profile, as opposed to the asymmetrical Nd:Yag lasers
• 50% smaller spot size than Nd:Yag and CO 2 lasers
• No gas refill or tube failure which may occur with CO 2
• Air cooled versus chiller, saving from $4,000 to $8,000
• Much smaller footprint
• Ownership cost is 50% less than Nd:Yag systems
• Fiber laser capability to focus a ten times smaller spot size due to 1.6 micron wavelength vs. 11 micron wavelength for CO 2
• Q-switched mode allows for higher power density, discharging in only 100 nanoseconds.
• Fiber uses negligible power, while CO 2­ may require high voltage power supplies due to high energy loss for cooling

Our FiberTower ™ Series systems are available immediately, as well as the OEM standalone kit for inline integration. They are considerably more affordable and reliable than Nd:Yag or CO 2 technology.

About Laser Photonics

Laser Photonics designs and manufactures CO2 and Fiber Laser marking systems (Laser Marking Machines) for precision applications for the automotive, aerospace, plastics, defense, electronics, and semiconductor markets. Laser Photonics has worldwide patents on many leading technologies including a method for laser glass scribing/breaking without any particles or loss. For more information, visit www.laserphotonics.com.