Metal and steel surfaces

Metal blanks directly after smelting, coils, plates, pipes, machine components: The metal and steel industry marks, lasers and labels very different metal and steel surfaces. The marking technology often has to withstand extreme environmental conditions, for example when the red-hot surfaces of freshly produced steel are marked directly. Not only high heat, but also fast temperature fluctuations as the metal cools are a challenge for marking and labeling systems. Added to this are dirt and dust, vibrations and various surface conditions such as oily, rusty and scaled surfaces. Changing compositions of metal alloys and long printing breaks are further aspects that need to be taken into account when developing marking systems for the metal and steel industry. As metal blanks, semi-finished products and end products have to be marked for complete traceability from the plant, the industry needs solutions that can be integrated directly into production plants or manufacturing plants.

The challenges of marking metal and steel surfaces

• Versatile different metals, product sizes and shapes
• Marking under extreme environmental conditions
• Resistance to heat, cold, chemical and mechanical stress
• Fast application in automated steel production, metal and sheet metal processing
• Generation of machine-readable alphanumeric codes and 2D Codes
• Rough, uneven or smooth, greasy or oily surfaces

What is marked in the metal and steel industry?

Types of metal: steel, stainless steel, iron, aluminum, copper, brass and others

Semi-finished and finished products:

• Steel coils
• Steel plates, aluminum plates
• Tubes and pipes
• Steel billets
• Shipbuilding profiles
• Steel drums
• Aluminum ingots
• Wire side, steel ropes
• Metal lids
• Tin cans

Where are our solutions used?

• Direct marking/laser engraving/printing of steel/metal products and semi-finished products for seamless traceability (production data, batch codes, serialization)
• Good/bad marking, edge marking, dot marking, line marking and color marking for quality assurance and anti-counterfeiting
• Marking of metallic surfaces with paints and varnishes (marking technology)
• Labeling (1D Codes and 2D Codes, type plates, security labels)
• Code verification, text verification, plain text verification, layout control