Laser marking on plastics

In the fifth video in the series, the "marking professionals on site" look at the marking of plastics using color change.

Permanent markings on industrial products and components protect against counterfeiting and provide traceability and security. Laser marking using high-contrast color change is a low-consumption and virtually maintenance-free process for the reliable marking of plastics: it permanently bonds serial numbers, safety signs and logos to the plastic part, as it activates additives in the material itself.

REA Marking Professionals Frank Debusmann (Sales Manager Germany) and Daniel Wege (Business Development Manager) show how marking plastics works and that this solution can also save costs during their visit to AKRO-PLASTIC GmbH in Niederzissen, Rhineland-Palatinate.

The REA partner specializes in plastic compounds. These are special compounds for plastics production. In its development laboratory, AKRO-PLASTIC creates individual combinations of polymers, additives and fillers for its customers. The additives also include materials for laser marking: they can be incorporated into the plastic mixture without any further effort and activated inline with the bundled light of the REA JET FL fiber laser beam immediately after the part is finished - and any desired marking, including in color, can be reproduced.

In addition to various injection molding machines for the production of plastic parts, the Akro laboratory also has a REA JET fiber laser, which the experts use to determine the optimum marking result. Michael Riek, Business Development Manager at Akro-Plastic, explains how they do this to the REA Marking Professionals. The video clearly shows how the laser's light spot prints logos, QR codes and tables on a plastic sheet and then a device from the REA Verifier (VeriCube) series verifies the quality and readability of the marking with codes.

"Consistent quality and absolute process control in the marking of plastics is no longer a challenge," says Frank Debusmann.

Stay tuned and curious: next month's episode 6 will be "deliciously oily".