To address its marking requirement, Tec Systems used a standard robotic laser marking system. Cylinder heads are first manually loaded onto a linear conveyor. At the laser marking cell, the task is to permanently etch the face of the component using a compact solid-state laser marking head that is mounted to the end of a 6-axis ABB industrial robot (01908 350300). The robot aligns the laser marking field, which is a flat plane, with the surface on the component that requires marking. This system enables the robot to orient the marking field to the required angle around a component whose orientation is fixed. Then, it etches the cast aluminium cylinder head with a permanent black mark.
The laser system supplied includes a compact laser marking head weighing 10 kg. That weight includes air cooling, used to avoid risk of downtime owing to failure of a water connection in the cooling circuit.
A scanning head, using a 2-axis galvo scanning mirror and a flat field lens, provides a marking area of 120 by 120 mm, but the robot can reposition the marking system, should the area required exceed this.
The supplier claims that its standard robotic laser marking systems are suited to almost all materials, and easily adapted to different industries. It explains: “The degree of flexibility provided allows it to be easily reconfigured to suit new components with different geometries, and the orientation of the marking field enables components of all shapes and sizes to be marked.”
