Laser marking plastic electronic parts

The electronic components industry uses a wide variety of plastics due to the varied functions required and the properties they provide. In general, plastics can be marked with fibre or DPSS lasers, the latter often providing a better response for contrast generation.

However, each plastic poses its own difficulties that must be taken into account when marking, as there is no common marking solution for all materials. For example, the use of flame retardants in plastic processing or the doping of other materials such as fiberglass makes them more resistant and complicates colour change reactions for some wavelengths of laser. If you then also have to consider multiple substrates of different colours, marking is often even more complicated. 

In the case of this application, we had multiple components of different colours and these all reacted differently to the laser radiation. The best solution to obtain high contrast and high-quality marking is the use of a frequency doubles DPSS laser , this has a wavelength of 532 nm, which is the colour green in the visible light spectrum. For this application, the D-5005-Green laser provided high-speed marking, with high definition and contrast on all proposed colours, ensuring that the information is readable while preserving the integrity of the material.

In this application the marking achieved a high contrast colour change enabling the required information to be marked permanently and efficiently with marking times under 4 seconds and allowing variable data to be marked on each component (serial number and date / time of manufacture). This process uses no chemicals or additives and is therefore is quick to setup, run and finish at the end of a shift, there is no waste and no consumables, making laser marking a cost effective, eco-friendly and efficient method of part marking and improves brand recognition.