Laser Marking on White Plastic

Laser marking is fundamentally different from ink printing, the traditional method of marking on plastics.

Direct ink printing puts an image on the surface of the plastic which can be removed by abrasion or solvents.

But Laser marking can provide an indelible high-contrast mark in the material itself.

And it is with no direct contact with the plastic other than through the incident Laser beam.

This application insight looks at Pulsed Fiber Laser marking of plastics focusing on the four key types of mark.

Just like  foaming, engraving, engraving with colour change and colour change only marking.

It also explores Laser marking of different types of plastic including ABS, polyethylene, polypropylene and polycarbonate, and why our Pulsed Fiber Laser is the best tool for the job.

Many consumer electronics products are made from white plastic, and some consumer electronics products have a transparent hard coating.

It is difficult to achieve smooth marking on this type of plastic using standard ns pulsed lasers because it tends to melt the hard coating.

Tests have shown that good marking can be obtained using a relatively low frequency short pulse laser.

The sample shown was produced using a 3 ns pulse at a scan speed of 500 kHz / s at a frequency of 150 kHz, resulting in a smooth mark with a uniform appearance.

It is important to optimize line-to-line shadow spacing and scanner synchronization delay to achieve this type of marking.