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Laser
See the light: laser coding solutions from MARKEM
Carbon dioxide lasers use electrical energy to cause carbon dioxide to emit a powerful beam of invisible infrared light. Infrared light is actually a form of heat energy, so when the beam is directed at your packaging substrate, the heat either vaporizes or engraves the substrate’s surface, creating a mark.
The laser must be steered to create characters and images. Various methods are used to steer it, some requiring very high (and therefore costly) levels of energy. Since laser power is sold by the watt, the efficient use of available energy is vital to the equipment’s initial cost, as well as its reliability and overall cost of ownership.
What makes the MARKEM SmartLase® coder different?
The SmartLase laser coder is very efficient in its use of laser power, allowing us to use a small, low-cost, air-cooled laser. Computer-controlled mirrors bounce the laser beam onto the substrate to create the desired character or image. This all happens incredibly fast, allowing crisp, clean and accurate codes to be printed even on moving surfaces.
The life and reliability of a laser tube is heavily dependent on the number of times the laser emission is turned on and off. Competitive laser coders turn on and off for each character, whereas MARKEM SmartLase coders turn on and off for each legend. Imagine adding a 30-character legend to 30 packages: a competitive coder will cycle on and off 900 times, and a SmartLase coder will cycle just 30 times. No wonder SmartLase coders are the most reliable in the industry.
Because some substrates (such as printed cartons) require less energy to mark, SmartLase coders allow the user to control the amount of energy delivered to the surface. Efficient and controllable use of the available energy not only reduces costs, it has a positive effect on performance. Ongoing reliability testing under various operating conditions shows that SmartLase coders deliver a mean time between failure of more than 27,000 hours. This combination of performance and affordability has helped us sell more laser coders than any other company.
The SmartLase coder advantage
Every member of the SmartLase coder family delivers many benefits.
- small footprint for simple integration
- little or no modification to existing process required
- consumables-free coding means no messy inks and no supply costs
- handheld QWERTY/WYSIWYG interface delivers simple programming and operation
- low-power laser is safe and efficient
- flexibility to print on a wide variety of substrates in just about any industry
- legendary reliability delivers unmatched uptime
See the links below for more complete descriptions of the various SmartLase coders available only from MARKEM.
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