| Necessary Information for Preparing Laser Samples |
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It is important to give the vendors enough
information so that they can make the mark you want, hopefully on the
first try. The more information you can supply, the more likely you
will be comparing apples to apples when you get samples from several
vendors.
Critical information for the samples includes: |
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1. How much time
is available for the mark?
This is a function of your throughput requirements – how many
do you produce in a day/hour/minute? Figure in how much time is required
by machine or human to present the piece for marking and then reload
the laser and subtract that time from your needed mark time. Quality
and speed tend to be inversely related, so if the vendor thinks he has
all day to make a good mark, and he does, you’ll be disappointed
when the production units don’t look as good because they had
to be marked in miliseconds.
Use this formula to get the most efficiency from your laser marker,
and to provide the laser applications engineers the right amount of
time for each mark:
Assume: Parts manufactured per second = Total seconds available for
mark and handling
Therefore: Total seconds available per part – Handling time =
Laser Mark time
2. Do you have specific font requirements
for size and typeface?
Most
laser markers do not use True Type fonts in the strict sense. So the
font that’s available on your PC may not be available on a laser.
Most manufacturers can import or convert True Type fonts, but they will
become an outline font and then need to be filled in with cross-hatching
to look solid. The laser vendors will have library of single-line fonts
for fast marking, and some multiple-line fonts for a bolder look. Then
there are converted True Type fonts, which have to be filled. If you
have an absolute typeface requirement, make that clear. If you can live
with an approximation, let us know that.
3. Do you have a graphic you have to mark?
If you do, please try to
supply the graphic in a .dxf format. This is the one most preferred
by the laser vendors as .dxfs are vectorized graphics while photos are
bitmapped. Vectors work better. If you are trying to mark a photo, that
may be possible in what amounts to a grayscale, but we have to know
what you want.
4. Can you supply an example of your current
mark?
Even if it’s
not a laser mark, an actual example of your current mark would be very
helpful. This helps the applications engineer get a better idea of how
the layout actually works, etc.
5. Can you supply an engineering drawing showing how the mark is supposed
to look?
6. If there is a machine-readable code, or
a serial number, can you supply the actual text string to be encoded?
In order to get an accurate
example of what you will get in real life, the applications engineer
needs to have the actual information to mark. This determines the size
of machine-readable codes and helps assure your sample and your real
production will match.
7. Can you tell us what the material/plating
is?
This can be very helpful.
8. Send plenty of blank samples. Just a reminder – we
need plenty of blanks to supply to each vendor, as many as four sets. |
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