FREQUENCY ANSWER QUESTIONS

Why mark parts ?

You make parts to sell, but why bother to mark them? Is counterfeiting a problem? Do you want your customers to recognize your parts? Do you require traceability for warranty returns? Are you ISO compliant? Do you need to maintain a part history for safety critical parts? All these problem will be solved when you mark parts.

How should you mark your parts ?

Now that you have decided to mark, how should you do it? There are a lot of different technologies, how do you choose? Hand marking is easy to implement, but slow, inconsistent, labor intensive and when a hammer smashes a thumb it can be expensive. Ink jet is fast and programmable, but it is not permanent, the ink is not cheap and the solvent is an environmental liability. Presses can make fast permanent marks, but they are not very flexible, set up is time consuming, they can't be used on hard or fragile parts and they can be dangerous. Chemical-etch is inexpensive, but slow and inconsistent. Otherwise, above solutions will not consistent with large scale production. Many types of marks are required by industry on many materials. Can it mark all types of metal? Up to what hardness? What about plastics and other materials?

What technology should you choice ?

All above analysis show that you require fast, flexible, safe, programmable marking. Are your parts fragile? Does the mark need to be permanent? Do you need to mark date codes and/or serial numbers. Laser marking technology adapte all requirements with very low operation cost.

Do you require machine readable marks ?

Are you familiar with DATAMATRIXT? Are you an aerospace manufacturer? Do your parts need to be SPEC2000 compliant? How much space do you have for the mark? Does the mark have to survive in a difficult environment? Do you need to encode a large amount of data?

Who is your laser marking solution supplier ?

Your supplier needs to be stable to support you in the future. Does the company you are buying from have a global presence? Are they growing? Do they have experience in your market?

How good is the service ?

How many service technicians does the company have. Do they have multiple service locations? Are they available 24/7?

How good is the quality ?

Is the product designed for industrial marking? Are the components robust? Are there many customers use that laser marking system? What type of warranty is offered?

How difficult is maintenance ?

All equipment needs maintenance. How difficult is it to maintain the equipment? Does it require special tools? Does it require special training? How often does it need to be maintained? Can it be done in-house? How long does the maintenance take? Is a preventative maintenance plan available?

With ACI laser integrated laser source, optical component and Peltier air cooling system are designed in a compact, you almost need no maintainane with only cleaning of cooling fans for good performance. Maintainance cycle of laser system is one year and execute by ACI technical engineers.

Will you be shown how to use the machine ?

Once you have purchased the equipment, how do you get it running? Is phone support available, is it free? Is on-site training available? What types of training are available, start-up, preventative maintenance, mechanical, software?

At LET Service Center, you can see all procesing relating to sample execution on demo laser system.

How big is the system ?

Space is at a premium in most applications. Can the equipment fit into your existing application? Are different marking tools available to reach past obstructions? Is it possible to move the marking head if it interferes with the part?

ACI laser marking system is only 20kg and 718 x 201 x 220 mm

How good is the software ?

No two applications are the same, does the software make it easy to program the system. Is the software built into the controller ? Is it easy to use? Is Windows®-based software available?

Can I get a customized solution ?

Every application is different, can your supplier manage the customization? Do you have to work with one of their integrators. If you choose the integrator will the supplier provide support ?

Is it easy to integrate ?

Most systems are not stand-alone, they need to function with the other systems in your plant. Does the system have input/output capability? Can it receive serial strings? Can it communicate with your PLC, your database programs?