Warm-up target for a laser engraver
AssigneeAssa Abloy AB
InventorsMichael Jon Woizeschke, Timothy Joel Wolf
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A laser marking system comprises a laser energy source that generates a laser beam, a laser controller configured to focus the laser beam over a field of view greater than a size of laser-markable items, and a start-up target that includes laser-safe material and is located within the field of view. The laser controller is further configured to point the laser beam at the start-up target during a start-up phase of the laser energy source and focus the laser beam on one of the laser-markable items after the start-up phase.
Claims14
A laser marking system for marking laser-markable items, the system comprising:
- a laser energy source configured to generate a laser beam;
- a laser controller configured to focus the laser beam over a field of view greater than a size of the laser-markable items;
- and
- a start-up target that includes laser-safe material that is safe from laser marking and is located within the field of view;
- wherein the laser controller is further configured to:
- point the laser beam at the start-up target during a start-up phase of the laser energy source, wherein energy of the laser beam transitions from an idle state energy to a steady state energy during the start-up phase and the start-up target is positioned away from a focal distance of the laser source used during laser-marking;
- and
- focus the laser beam on one of the laser-markable items after the start-up phase.
A method of operating a laser marking system, the method comprising:
- generating a laser beam using a laser energy source;
- pointing the laser beam at a laser-safe start-up target that is safe from laser marking and is located in a field of view of the laser energy source during a start-up phase of the laser energy source, wherein energy of the laser beam transitions from an idle state energy to a steady state energy during the start-up phase and during the start-up phase the start-up target is positioned away from a focal distance of the laser source used during laser-marking;
- and
- focusing the laser beam after the start-up phase on a laser-markable item positioned in the field of view of the laser energy source.
A card marking system, the system comprising:
- a laser module including:
- a laser energy source configured to generate a laser beam;
- and
- a laser controller configured to focus the laser beam over a field of view defining an engravable area by the laser beam;
- a start-up target that includes laser-safe material that is safe from laser marking and is located within the field of view;
- and
- a transport mechanism to receive a laser-markable card and position the card within the field of view;
- wherein the laser controller is further configured to:
- point the laser beam at the start-up target during a start-up phase of the laser energy source, wherein energy of the laser beam transitions from an idle state energy to a steady state energy during the start-up phase and during the start-up phase the start-up target is positioned away from a focal distance of the laser source used during laser-marking;
- and
- focus the laser beam on the laser-markable card after the start-up phase.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.