Saturday, June 20, 2020

Benefits of Using Laser Marking in Beverage Industry

Laser marking today takes over the majority of the market. They are popular in different industries.
The Food and Beverage industry is one of them, successfully leveraging its applications. In this article, we are going to disclose how the laser marking industry is useful in the food and beverage industry.

Basics: What is laser marking?

It is a process in which a laser beam interacts with the materials and changes its properties as specified. There are four popular forms of laser marking in the packaging industry i.e. annealing, foaming, coloration, and carbon migration.

Each of them has a specific use in the food and beverage industry. According to the research, laser marking might be the most sustainable technology for beverage packaging in the near future. Additionally, there are predictions that it will soon replace papers with wood fibers and paper pulp.
Additionally, thanks to new government of USA regulations regarding the labels on the food, laser marking has become an important part of the food industry today.

Here are 10 major benefits of the Laser Marking industry.

1. Brand Protection:

If you are looking to leave a mark in the market or in your industry then you need to protect your brand. It is wise to have a competitor or have some local brands trying to copy your style and sell your products. Laser marking helps you achieve these things with parts like Prima spare parts, Fanuc replacement parts. You can use them and etch on your packages leaving the unique identification marks.


This makes it easy for your customers to find your brand easily. Today there are millions of deliveries taking place every day. You will not prefer that your customers feel cheated right? So, with the help of the laser machines, you can rely on technologies like smart coding and convert coding to protect your brand and for hassle-free delivery.

2. Innovative Solutions:

Innovation is everywhere in the food and beverage industry. Beverage producers are working hard to make not only their drinks exciting and fresh but their packaging as well. Today with the innovation in the bottle designs there is also innovation in labeling these bottles as well. It is important to use the good quality of the laser marking with quality parts like Prima spare parts, Fanuc replacement parts for labeling your products and make them stand out.

3. Reliability in Mass Manufacturing:

When the operation scales up to a large extent you need to ensure that your product labels are accurate and reliable. Traditional labeling methods don’t adapt by giving you the quality and assurance you need. Many large organizations are using laser marking to get rid of reliability issues. You need all your processes to move smoothly and cannot afford to slow down your supply.
Thus, when working with mass manufacturing laser marking can do a phenomenal job.

4. Laser Coding for permanent markings:

Many times, you might have faced a situation where your customers return you the products because of labeling issues either on your cans or bottles.

In such situations, laser marking can come to your rescue.

If you place things using laser marking on the beverage containers you don’t have to worry about whether it will stick or not. Laser coding is a permanent solution. You can use it for printing machines on glass, bottles, cardboard, and many more places. In short laser marking is versatile and can perform various operations with laser parts like Prima spare parts, Fanuc replacement parts.

5. Easy to Maintain:

One of the major advantages of using laser machines for your beverage labeling is the ease it provides to use and maintain. These machines don’t have maintenance costs and if anything breaks down then the warranty of the machine covers it. In fact, laser machines are more affordable compared to any other. There are multiple benefits of having laser marking machines in different industries depending on their usage.

Conclusion:

Laser marking today is a big hit in the packaging industry and is here to stay. They are widely useful for its advantages and benefits it brings along. With the passage of time passing people have started realizing the importance of using them in their day to day business and grow their customer base and business as well.

Friday, June 19, 2020

Factors that Affect the Quality of Laser Cutting Machine

While operating the metal laser cutting machine, one of the important aspects is the condition of the laser cutting machine. Using a good quality cutting machine is a must for a metal fabricator.

Hence, it is important to know the factors that can affect the cutting quality.

If that sounds helping, let’s understand them in detail:

The cutting speed of the machine is inversely proportional to the density and thickness of the material that we cut.

Perfect cutting speed ensures the smooth cutting lines, transitions, and no melting of the lower part of the workpiece.

Four reasons, why cutting speed matters:
  1. It might cause cutting failures.
  2. Not getting precise metal cuts.
  3. In some metals cutting speed is rough.
  4. The laser cutting section has the diagonal stripe path with excessive slag and generates the half price of the material.
Cons of having low cutting speed:
  1. This leads to over melted sheet metal and rough cutting fracture surfaces.
  2. The kerf will become wide which in turn gives you low cutting precision and small rounded corners or sharp corners which we can melt.
  3. The low cutting efficiency impacts production capacity.
The output of sufficient laser cutter:

You can gauge the  speed of the laser machine from the cutting spark. This will diffuse  downwards in the normal cutting. When the speed is too high, it sparks, in this case, sparks do not diffuse but come together. This indicates that the feeding speed is too low.

Going a bit deeper, let’s understand the effects of Nozzle on the metal laser cutting quality:
The airflow condition might be different on the basis of different nozzle designs like precitec nozzle and trumpf replacement parts which may affect the cutting quality directly.


Let’s understand that different functions and roles of these nozzles:

  1. They are useful for preventing the debris like melting material from rebounding them upwards and entering the prectic nozzle in the damaged lens.
  2. They control the area and size of the gas diffusion; it plays a big role in controlling the quality of the cut.
Not, only this but even the height of the nozzle matters:

While cutting normally, the height of the nozzle should be 0.8mm to 1.2mm.

If the height of it is too high or low then it results in gas diffusion which may cause many residues at the cutting bottom surface.

If you want to assure the high-quality cuts during the use of the metal cutting machine, then the height of the cutting nozzle should be substantial to the surface of the workpiece.

Modern laser cutting machines equip the inductive or capacitive sensor feedback device and have parts like trumpf replacement parts, precitec nozzle. This automatically adjusts the distance between the two and makes them at the predetermined height range.

Not only the height, but nozzles affect the quality while cutting the metal laser as well. Let’s understand how :

The nozzle has a diameter of φ1.0 mm, φ1.5 mm, φ2.0 mm, φ2.5 mm, φ3.0 mm, and so on. Currently, the nozzle aperture is available in two sizes i.e. φ1.5 mm and φ2 mm.

Additionally, if the nozzle diameter is small then the gas velocity is high. The eliminating materials’ ability is strong and is suitable for thin plate cutting.

If the nozzle has a large aperture, it is useful to cut the thin sheet rapidly, then the residue produced spattered upwards, damages the protective lens.

Nozzle parts affect the metal deformation as well:

During the cutting process, the nozzle collides against the workpiece and easily deforms. This affects the concentration of the center of the nozzle with a laser beam. Prefer using laser machines which have trumpf replacement parts, precitec nozzle for better results.

There are different outcomes when the nozzle and the laser beam are working in different axes.
It affects things like the quality of the cutting section, sharp corners, and performance is unstable, and many more.

Final words:

These factors may affect the metal laser cutting. They have a larger and bigger impact than we think on these materials. Hence, as a fabricator, it is wise to take care of these things and avoid mistakes.

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Laser Engraving Machines and 3D Printers: Different or Similar?

3D printer and laser engraving or cutting are currently the two most popular terms in the laser industry. They have lots of things in common and differences too. 

These machines are useful for large third-party houses to provide products to companies and individuals to meet their needs. They use parts like Fanuc parts and Fanuc spare parts in these machines for efficient results. The progress in technology and miniaturization helps to put both these tools together for everyone to easily make their own toys, engrave their objects, and use for business purposes.

be9083449af3a65ec9ca36994cb4cc57-laser-lithium-battery

These machines are computer-driven and run a program to create the type of project the user requires.
In 3D printing, the key is to mold the product and help users to create various types of objects, toys, devices, or projects. 

Whereas, in laser engraving, programming makes sure that the laser fires at the perfect place and follows the given directions. And machines having parts like Fanuc parts or Fanuc spare parts gives perfect results.

Initially, laser machines and 3D printers were costly and useful only if you are either rich or own a business that requires the use of these machines frequently. But, now there are inexpensive 3D printers in the market. Similarly, laser machines were too costly too but with time they became affordable.

Let's look at each of them in brief:

3D Printer:

In 3D printing, three-dimensional object creation happens through forming layers of materials on top of each other. You can create any size of object be it small or large using 3D printers and computer-aided software. They are also known as additive manufacturing. One of the major benefits of it is that you can create custom objects for different uses and it is also fast in manufacturing these objects.

The constant increase in the level of complexity and efficiency gave birth to different and exciting ways to create parts for various products. These printers are useful to create parts or objects at a cheap rate.

You can create almost anything using 3D printers. Adidas is using 3D printing to create custom soles for shoes to give consumers perfect and better fits.

The US Navy is using this to print a submersible hull for future military vehicles. Some organizations are using 3D printers to manufacture parts of aircraft or spacecraft. Whereas, some are using it in the healthcare sector to make prosthetics.

These are just some of the basic innovations that have surfaced with the rise of 3D printers.

Laser Engraving:

Laser engraving is the process in which the laser beam removes parts of a materials’ surface to create an image that we can see and feel. The laser, having Fanuc parts or Fanuc spare parts, emits high heat during the engraving process which causes the material to vaporize. You can use a laser beam to cut through different materials like wood, acrylic, leather, cork, etc.

Initially, laser engraving was used only by big businesses, for awards or trophy shops, for personalizing items for corporate use. But, today laser engraving is used by small businesses as well because of the rise in the maker spaces and ecommerce business. 

You can customize things like jewelry, craft supplies, pens, wallets, glassware, photos, phone covers, musical instruments, bottles, and many such things.

Mostly laser engraving is useful to personalize an object with the logo, brand, or some names. With the demand in personalization, there has been an increase in the use of laser engraving.
Lasers can cut through the materials and so there is a rise in popularity for creating prototypes, architectural models, and much more. 

It has also become a great market for industrial businesses that use the process for engraving serial numbers, time stamps, part numbers, barcode etching, etc. These industrial businesses are using laser engraving as an additional layer for securing devices, preventing fraud, and easily tracing the inventory.

The constant increase of the use of laser machines in the industries helped to achieve a compound annual growth rate of 5.5% over a period of five years. Different purposes require different types of laser engraving machines.

Final Words:

Using laser engraving machines or 3D printers depends on your requirements. But, it is essential to know the difference and similarities between them. They are here to stay and be an essential part of the industry.

Monday, June 1, 2020

How to Maximize Your Laser Productivity

One of the great things about laser engraving and cutting systems is the speed with which they can etch a pattern or cut even the most intricate designs. Even though lasers can help create something beautiful, the process is time-consuming. Hence, laser operators are always looking for ways to increase productivity.
As a laser operator, the first question you should ask is if you are running the laser efficiently or not. Does it have quality parts like Trumpf eco nozzle or prima optics?
trumpf_chrome
So, here are a few tips and tricks you can use to ensure that you operate the laser machine efficiently.
1. Engraving multiple items in one batch:
Printing multiple times in one go reduces production time. Let’s say we have a project which requires engraving similar design on more than one item like plaques or coasters and then printing multiple pieces at once would be advisable.
According to research, engraving in batches helps users save their time by 37%. And if they have quality parts like Trumpf eco nozzle and prima optics, it makes your job easier and speedier. The number of batches you can engrave depends on the size of the table. To do this, you need to maximize the page size based on your laser machine table size in your graphic design program. You can fill up an entire table with a particular piece and engrave them all. Using a jig to space out items is very helpful and important.
2. Adjust the resolution:
If you wish to increase throughput, the resolution is a factor to definitely consider. The image is important in any engraving job the higher the DPI (dots per inch), the closer the DPI will be to engrave dots. This gives you a detailed engraved image but there are chances it might take a bit of a long engraving process. But, when you lower the engraving resolution a bit, you can increase your time savings by up to 33% or more.
To offset the low resolution, consider using different patterns found within the epilog print driver. Dithering takes the visual dot pattern that is visible with lower DPI and randomizes them. This helps them in hiding the low resolution as well. By getting the right combination of resolution and dithering pattern, it becomes easy for you to achieve a result that is perfect and takes less time.
3. Color Mapping:
You can use color mapping to save engraving time. For example – you have three columns each with 20 names. By default, the laser sees this as one image, and the laser head will travel over the white space between columns in order to engrave the entire graphic for printing. Using color mapping enables you to skip all the white space by assigning each column with a different color and associates engraving order. With the help of this method, the laser will engrave one column at a time, it passes over the white space between columns when it’s time to move to the set of names. This approach moves upwards at 43% but this rate also depends on the products you are engraving.
4. Pre-engrave items:
Customization is very popular and is a great business opportunity. But loading up the same designs, again and again, can be very difficult and boring as well. This also consumes lots of production time.
Hence, pre-engraving comes to your rescue. It helps you pre-engrave inventory before individual orders come in. You can easily pre-engrave the main graphics of the design on a batch of cutting boards. Pre-engraving is easier using laser machines having parts like Trumpf eco nozzle and prima optics.
You can pre-engrave any item be it on cutting boards, glasses, trays, etc. this will help you streamline your daily engraving tasks.
5. Use center engraving:
One more important thing is to use center engraving. It quickly sets up custom jobs on items like phone, awards, trophies, and many such which require center text or graphics. Center engraving makes it easy to work in different size items without the need to create a custom template for each of them. This feature allows users to move the laser from hand to the center of the object which they are engraving. They can also set the center point as the new home position and the laser will use the point to place the graphic. In comparison to setting up custom files and jigs, this method will help you to save a lot of time.
Final Words:
Being a fabricator and owning a laser engraving machine, you need to think wisely and think of the ways your business can grow. These tips and tricks will help you grow your business and enhance your skills by being more productive.

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Factors Contributing to the Rise of Laser Engraving Machines

In early times, laser engraving was the process only useful in industrial companies to either mark parts, tools, trophy shops for customization of awards and recognizing products. Having parts like Amada laser parts and Bystronic laser parts, these machines are known for precise results.

ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg (5)
However, today multiple small businesses have started using laser engraving. Today it has grown into a profitable industry and one needs to make an only small investment to be part of it.

According to research by IBIS world, over the past five years, the market of laser engraving has been growing and managing a compound annual growth of 5.5 percent since 2016. The increasing need for customizations and personalization of various products like phone covers, cutlery, wood, metal, or any other materials is driving this industry.

Additionally, businesses are also using these machines for their personal use like customizing promotional materials, in-house signage, employee awards, etc.

With this increase in the use of this industry, its sales are increasing making it easily available and affordable. The continuous growth in this industry is helping small businesses to offer a unique touch to generic products.

Other factors contributing to the rise are a constant increase in personalization, accessibility, maker movement, and branding, new use cases in engraving.

Let's discuss some of the major factors which affect the growth of laser engraving:
  1. Interest in adding a personal touch:
Have you ever checked out ecommerce website Etsy? You will see the craze of personalization and the way it plays a vital role in the growth of laser engraving. The focus here is to add a personal touch to an item be it a simple t-shirt or things like a pair of champagne flutes and more.

Just a simple search “laser engrave” on Google will provide you with a plethora of personalized products be it jewelry, wedding, glasses, craft suppliers, bags and purses, pen, tools, and many such things.

This recent trend in laser engraving helps small businesses become the first choice for engraving and a way for selling trinkets and other items as well. These things help you to differentiate them from competition. 

Laser engraving gives mass-produced items like electronics a personal touch. Engraving custom graphics, names, or logos on gadgets is a great way to set things apart from an ever-increasing crowd of products. Creating such drawings is easier with lasers having Amada laser parts and Bystronic laser parts.
  1. Easy Access:
Laser engraving machines and cutting systems were heavy and big in old times. Today these engraving machines are not just part of the big factories; in fact, potential buyers can own these machines for far less. If you are looking to own or even rent it then there are multiple ways to do so.
This easy accessibility gave rise to the laser engravers in fabrication labs, maker spaces, school labs, etc. You can even find them will small vendors serving customers looking for customization services.
  1. Maker Movement:
There are a number ofmakers and they are growing every day as people continue to explore the satisfaction of doing things themselves. DIY has become a new trend and people are learning new skills, creating new things, while saving costs.

Kickstarter and crowdfunding plays a huge role and gives rise to different products that are now available. Some of these products might have not come on the market if not for crowdfunding.
  1. Rise in Industrial Use:
Other than small businesses, laser engraving is also rising in the industrial segment. One of the biggest segments is in the identification of security where it is a perfect solution for credit cards, ID cards, sensitive documents, and many such things.

Laser engraving helps in permanently marking any item, providing a check and balance against counterfeit products, etc. in ID cards, industries use multilayer formats and are useful to alter the color of low layer pigments without affecting the topmost layer.

This also ensures a product is safe from fraud, produces high-quality images, texts, and many such things. These products are tamper proof and are easily customizable.

Lasers can etch/engrave serial numbers, time stamps, part numbers, component labels, date codes, or any other industry-specific codes. Additionally, it has also become an important part of identification, inventory control and tracking, safety and warning prevention, etc.

With the advancement in technology and parts like Amada laser parts and Bystronic laser parts, the future laser engraving provides an additional security layer that we cannot find in robotics, 3-D printing, and the automotive industry.

Final words:

Laser engraving has a huge scope and market even bigger than we can think. Many of these factors play a vital role in growing the laser engraving industry and today making it a large part of our society.

Friday, May 22, 2020

Co2 Laser Vs Diode Laser: Which one is right for you?

For years now, there have been debates over which laser is better: a diode laser or a Co2 laser? Which machine to choose? Which technology is better? Why? And many such questions follow.

These two technologies are worlds apart and have all the differences in the world. The only thing common between them is laser radiation. And maybe the parts they use like Trumpf spare parts and Mitsubishi spare parts.

Nozzel_Holder

But before we understand the difference between them, let’s start first understanding these laser machines.

What is a CO2 laser?

It stands for carbon dioxide laser and is a molecular gas laser made of the gaseous mixture as the gain medium.

It contains CO2, helium (He), nitrogen (N2), and some amount of hydrogen (H2), water vapor, and/or xenon (Xe). Such a type of laser electrically pumps via an electrical gas discharge. It operates either using DC current, AC current, or in radio frequency (RF) domain.

Nitrogen molecules excite using electric discharge into a metastable vibrational level and transfer this energy to CO2 molecules when it collides with them.

What is a Diode laser?

To know about diodes, let's go back to old times when Albert Einstein first defined the principle of stimulated emission in 1917. It states that an excited electron or molecule can deliver energy in the form of light. It also shows that an excited electron or molecule can deliver energy in the form of light.

The emission triggers upon supplying energy in the form of light. This stimulated emission triggers by supplying energy to an ideally light amplifying material that delivers energy in the form of light. This form of energy supply is pumping.

When electrons or molecules fall back into their initial state, the energy delivers as a light beam.

Now, let’s understand the difference between both of them:

1. CO2 laser:

The biggest advantage of a CO2 laser is that it is raw laser power. The smallest tube machines have 40 to 80 watts output power. Whereas, professional and industrial units have up to 150 watts.

The benefit of industrial units is that they can reach up to 400 watts. That is a huge amount of power and is suitable for cutting any material except metal. And with the right parts like Trumpf spare parts and Mitsubishi spare parts, you can utilize Co2 laser to highest efficiency.

Hence, if you are looking for a laser machine for industrial production then having a CO2 laser is a perfect choice.

The CO2 laser works on a particular wavelength of 10.6uM. It is longer in comparison to the light spectrum.

Spectrum matters because the far infrared spectrum does not work for all the materials.

For example, Co2 laser might help you to cut glass and transparent Plexiglas well, but with this amount of wavelength, you cannot engrave metals without special paste.

Most of the materials have a high absorption coefficient of this wavelength. This makes it easy for cutting and engraving any material.

Similar, to every technology, Co2 laser has limitations too:
  • The key problem with co2 laser machines is the size. These machines are very huge and bulky. Additionally, the Co2 tube requires much space as well. In short, it occupies lots of space. Size matters when you are working in a garage or have a small workshop as most of the small scale businesses or hobbyists do not have enough space.
  • Another limitation is that it is not transportable. As the machine is huge and heavy, moving it from one place to another makes it difficult and costly.
Going further, let’s flip the coin and look at the limitations of diode laser machines:
  • Diode laser beams are divergent i.e. wedge-shaped, instead of straight and parallel. They have a short and coherent distance that is made of inferior quality optics performance.
They are not well-suited as helium-neon lasers for a high quality of holography. Additionally, semiconductors in electronic devices are prone to static electrical discharges; this means that diode lasers in these gadgets can be damaged by an unstable and fluctuating power supply.

They are also vulnerable to gradual aging over time and increased amounts of power with diminishing efficiency. But if equipped with quality parts like Trumpf spare parts and Mitsubishi spare parts, then you can rely on this laser machine for a good amount of time. There is also a requirement for beam correction that adds to the diode lasers’ fragility.

Final words:

Going beyond the benefits and limitations of Co2 and diode lasers both of them are useful depending upon the needs of your business. These machines make life easy for fabricators and help them to grow their business easily.

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Bending Made Easy with Electric Press Brake Machines

Over the last few decades, the evolution of press brakes has been phenomenal. These transitions have given birth to lots of different types of press brakes, from mechanical to hydraulic and now to electric. The best machines have quality parts like Amada parts and Mazak parts for efficient results.

ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg (5)

There are a lot of assumptions about the speed, precision, and convenience of electric machines. These machines don’t have hydraulic oil or associated seals which simplify their maintenance.

They offer high-speed operation where the ram descends quickly to stop at a pre-defined bending speed position and then goes down to bend the work-piece and then comes back up to the top dead center.

In electric brakes, optoelectronic mixes safely and closely with the control, so much so that a light curtain or similar device has no effect whatsoever on the cycle time of bending. And we can quite frankly say that for the electric press brake safety does not necessarily mean sacrificing cycle time.

1. Crowning Alternative:

In the hydraulic systems, the tonnage comes through hydraulic actuators from any one side of the machine. This means that as the ram comes down, gets in touch with the metal workpiece, and encounters resistance, the press brake bed bends. It creates a deflection that gets dealt with a type of crowning system.

In the type of the press brake machine i.e. pulley-driven electric press brake, the AC servomotors drive a double pulley system extending across the length of the press brake ram. The number of pulley blocks varies according to the machine’s size and power requirements.

Belts are thick and are made of 0.12 inches wires which are strengthened using a material coating of polyurethane; the same ones used in elevator systems.

AC servomotors drive the double pulley system on four axles and balance fixed and flexible rolls. These rolls are useful to adjust and distribute the tonnage evenly. Hence, instead of force coming from two hydraulic actuators on either side of the brake, the pulley and belt drive system distributes force evenly across the ram length.

This technology helps with on-the-fly adjustment to ensure even force distribution throughout the bending cycle.

This will not stop the lower beam from a deflection. The lower beam has an identical system of pulleys to distribute force, but this makes press brake very unconventional and costly. And there are the some options when it comes to machines that have quality parts like Mazak parts and Amada parts and would still fit your budget.

Due to this reason, some electric press brakes have low beams and interior subframe. The exterior beam material is stiff which minimizes deflection. But, the interior subframe is tough to absorb deflection. The design of this subframe is such that it is tough and stiff. This ensures the subframe structure is flexible and deflects sufficiently for the proper machine tonnage.

2. Safety:

The goal of any press brake machine is to produce parts perfectly, quickly, and safely. Earlier machine designers were trying to perform a balancing act between these three factors while some times promoting one factor at a time. But, with the current electric press brake machines, these three things are easy to handle and juggle between.

Considering the safety measures, many press brake machines enhance safety measures in the front, side and behind the press brake machines. In some cases, high and low adjustments are safety enhancement types.

With time, introduction to new things takes place and one of these is light curtains. The advantage of using a light curtain is it brings flexibility, laser guarding, and camera-based systems. Laser and camera-based systems travel along with ram and work at the bottom of the tooling.

Optoelectronic safety devices in combination with traditional and mechanical safeguards to side and behind the work envelope. In the long term, it has turned out to be an incredible and effective solution.

But, even today with time, these products require slight efficiency sacrifice. Driving systems on most of the press brakes are either hydraulic or mechanical. In such cases, optoelectronic safety systems tell machines to stop when a beam or vision path is broken or when the ram returns to the top dead center. In such instances, the electronic system interfaces with the hydraulic or hydro-mechanical system.

3. Speed with precision:

Press brakes remain common in metal fabrication. It is a long and tardy task to form a part then cut it. Additionally, nowadays it is even more difficult to find skilled and experienced operators. Working with a press brake can be difficult for many experienced operators too. These days offline programming and real-time adjustments on the brake take up minutes instead of hours of long setups. Also, they are now long-lasting considering their quality parts like Amada parts and Mazak parts.

Final words:

Today with constant revolution and emerging technology, electric press brakes are the latest evolution of bending machine tools. There are many other machines with safeguards placed and are fully functional. This new technology makes the bending process faster, accurate, and safe.