The most common laser marking machines on the market are fiber laser marking machines, UV laser marking machines and CO2 laser marking machines. These three types laser marking systems can cover almost all types of laser marking applications.
Due to its application fields, core components and working principles are different, the price of UV laser marking system is nearly 3 times higher than fiber laser marking system. Now, Let STYLECNC give you an explanation of the differences between fiber and UV laser marking machines:
Working Principle Comparison
UV laser wavelength is 355nm. The machine adopts third-order cavity frequency multiplication technology compared with infrared laser. The 355nm UV light focusing spot is extremely small, which can greatly reduce the mechanical deformation of the material and small processing thermal effect.
Fiber laser wavelength is 1064nm.
With regard to the wavelength of laser light, the shorter the wavelength, the smaller and higher accuracy the laser spot, and the smaller the heat affected zone formed during processing, the more exquisite the processing effect.
And there are differences on working method between UV laser marking machine and other laser marking equipment. Generally, for the CO2 laser marking machine and the fiber laser marking machine, they are the physical marking methods by the laser. But UV laser marking machines use chemical processing methods, mainly photochemical reactions to process. The difference between these two different processing methods is that laser physical processing methods are mainly processed on the surface of products and materials, and laser chemistry processing method can be laser-drilled into the interior of the product material for processing.
Applications Comparison
Fiber laser marking machine: Higher cost-effective, basically suitable for marking on all types of metal surface. Due to its beam generate heat, it is not suitable for high-precision special material marking.
UV laser marking machine: It is especially suitable for the high-end market of ultra-fine processing, such as Bottle surface marking for cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, video and other high-molecular materials, with fine effect, the mark is clean and firm, and it is better than the ink coding and no pollution, flexible PCB board engraving, dicing, silicon wafer micro hole, blind hole processing. Among them, 80% of data lines and adapter on the market, all marked by UV laser.
Fiber Laser Engraving Projects
UV Laser Engraving Projects
Pros and Cons
In terms of wavelength, UV lasers have shorter wavelengths than visible wavelength, so it is not visible to the naked eye. Although you can not see these laser beams, it is these short wavelengths that makes the UV laser to focus more precisely, and thus maintain excellent positioning accuracy while producing extremely fine circuit characteristics.
There is an another important factor, In addition to the low workpiece temperature, the high-energy photons existed in ultraviolet light allow the UV laser to be used in large-scale PCB circuit board assemblies, from standard materials such as FR4 to high-frequency ceramic composites, and flexible PCB materials, such as Polyimide and other various materials. The absorption of three common PCB materials under the action of six different lasers. The six lasers include excimer lasers (wavelength 248 nm), infrared lasers (wavelength 1064 nm), and two CO2 lasers (wavelengths are 9.4 μm and 10.6 μm respectively). The ultraviolet laser (Nd:YAG, wavelength of 355 nm) is a rare laser with uniform absorption in all three materials.
The UV laser marking system shows a very high absorption rate when applied on resin and copper, and has an appropriate absorption rate when processing glass. Only the expensive excimer laser (wavelength 248 nm) will get better overall absorption when processing these major materials. This difference in material makes UV lasers to be the best choice for a variety of PCB materials in many industrial applications, from the most basic circuit boards, circuit wiring, to the production of pocket-sized embedded chips and other advanced processes.
The computer system of the UV laser marking machine directly from the computer aided design data to the processing circuit board, it means that there is no need for any middleman in the production process of the circuit board. Coupled with the precise focusing capabilities of UV, the UV laser system can Implement a very characteristic solution and repeat positioning. It can be said that positioning is precise, which is also one of the requirements of the circuit board industry.
Summary
STYLECNC will offer various types of laser marking equipment (such as fiber laser marking machine, CO2 laser marking machine, UV laser marking machine), portable type, mini type, desktop type, online flying and other laser marking equipments for your choice. Just tell us your work requirements, we will recommend to you a right laser marking machine.