Plastic Material Application
Over the years, we have gained extensive process and automation experience in providing highly customized and automated plastic marking and engraving equipment, and have gradually expanded this to include laser cutting, welding and cleaning of plastics. Whether it’s quality traceability in industrial applications, logo and message printing on ABS plastic housings for electronics, consumer goods, food and pharmaceutical PP, PE, PET, PVC, PU, TPU packaging or acrylic signage for the advertising industry, we have the optimal solution.
Our Plastic Processing Technologies
Because laser marking requires no physical contact, it generates less noise and plastic debris than traditional peen marking and can accommodate more complex shapes or hardnesses. With no consumables such as marking needles, laser marking machines can be installed and operated under heavy loads for long periods of time, requiring only periodic calibration to maintain consistent marking quality and efficiency.
- Quiet: laser marking of plastics also generates noise, but this is negligible compared to the peen marking process;
- Accuracy: laser marking can mark plastic in extremely small size, such as 2*2mm square UDI code or 0.03mm line width characters, which are impossible for peen marking;
- Visibility: laser marking can leave high-contrast and scannable date, logo, serial number, barcode or more on plastics.
As the most traditional industrial marking method, both dotting and scribing can be used to leave a permanent, traceable mark on hard plastics such as ABS or PC, and can also be used to engrave beautifully on acrylic surfaces with precise control of the force. Due to the nature of plastics, marking is prone to wear and tear with use and time, so the mainstream has moved to laser marking, with only a few customers continuing to use it for depth, efficiency or aesthetic reasons.
- Fast: to mark with same specific depth such as 1mm, our peen marking machine is 2~5X faster than a 100W CO2 laser system;
- Depth: our peen marking machine offer 0.4~1mm depth in one pass on plastics, and able to precise repeat for deeper marks;
- Beautiful: our peen marking machine offer smooth mark edge and keep in primary color of metal especially by scribe, and no damage or burn on environ surfaces.
Plastic laser welding technology has been widely used in automotive plastic parts, medical devices, electronic packaging, food packaging, waterproof clothing and other fields, especially in the application of the requirements of aseptic, dust-free environment. This technology has many advantages, such as no vibration, waterproof and airtight, clean, efficient, stable, etc., and can minimize thermal damage and thermal deformation, will not cause internal component damage or displacement, so it is especially suitable for joining sensitive components.
- Quality: extremely consistent weld quality with minimal heat distortion of surrounding surfaces and extremely tight product dimensional tolerances;
- Precision: use of a 980nm or 1940nm laser welding system produces extremely small spots and weld marks for high-precision welding of plastic parts;
- Easy to automate: the physical structure of laser welding is simple, which facilitates the development and use of automated welding.
Laser cleaning is more efficient and sustainable than ultrasonic or detergent cleaning because of its non-contact nature. In recent years, as MOPA fiber lasers and picosecond fiber lasers have become more affordable, laser surface cleaning of plastic parts has become popular for efficiently cleaning or removing dirt, oil, paint or coatings from plastic surfaces without damaging them.
- Efficiency: the high-energy laser beam vaporizes contaminants in a very short time with minimal damage to the workpiece.
- Non-consumable: laser cleaning can be operated without detergents or catalysts, a significant savings for high-volume industrial plastic cleaning.
- Easy to automate: laser beam can remove oil, grease, paint and coating at a distance in simple structure, therefore suitable to implement automatic cleaning.
Explore Our Plastic Laser Processing Machines
Whether it is common rubber and plastics such as ABS, Acrylic, CR, NBR, NR, IIR, PA, PC, PE, PET, PP, PS, PU, PVC, SBR, SiR or modified rubber and plastics such as ETFE, EPM, EPDM, FKM, HNBR, POM, PTFE, TPU, the laser can be used to provide traceability on injection molded parts and components in the automotive, consumer electronics, appliance and firearms industries with serial and batch numbers; food, beverage and medical products with production and expiration dates; and all types of packaging with serial numbers and bar codes. Logos and manufacturer information can be laser marked for high contrast.
The use of traditional dot peen allows for permanent, non-contrast, permanent marking on hard plastics, often used for dot peen marking on parts that require depth, such as Datamatrix. With controlled force, the marking is more aesthetically pleasing and will not burn or melt with heat, especially for scribing, which is used beautifully by some of the highest end customers in the advertising industry to produce PVC business cards and acrylic signs.
Some rubbers and plastics such as TPU, PC and PTFE are hydrophobic or oleophobic, making it difficult to apply paint directly with uniformity and durability. Traditionally, the surface of the rubber or plastic can be etched with white oil and then painted. Now you can also use 248nm excimer UV or 355nm UV laser marking machine for more efficiency, environmentally friendly and easy to automate the etching process.
Deep engraving and cutting of rubber or plastic can be achieved by repeatedly marking and etching the surface of the plastic using a high-energy laser beam to continuously vaporize the plastic. While CO2 lasers are most commonly used, some customers use high-speed picosecond or femtosecond infrared and ultraviolet lasers for high-precision engraving or cutting to avoid the melting and scorching commonly associated with CO2 lasers.
Laser cleaning of plastics is mainly focused on paint stripping, where a high energy laser beam vaporizes the paint layer on transparent or translucent plastic surfaces to create translucent buttons or panels, as is common in the automotive industry for center consoles and gear knobs, and in the case of some home appliances and consumer electronics, for logos and buttons. Unlike laser cleaning of metals, this task is typically performed with a 1064nm fiber laser or a 355nm UV laser 3D galvo marking machine to accommodate the complex shapes of various plastic products.
As the size of integrated electronic circuits continues to shrink, some consumer electronic products such as TWS have become too small to be fastened with conventional screws, and the use of adhesives is not aesthetically pleasing or strong enough, so laser welding of plastics has become more popular. Laser projection welding, which uses a laser beam to join two materials with different light transmissions, is the most common method. In addition, some high-end outdoor waterproof jackets are laser welded instead of seamlessly bonded for a more reliable joint and longer life.
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