Symbol Grouping and Striping for Wide Field Matrix Laser Marking

A system comprising:

• a product line configured to move products through a facility;
• a laser marking device arranged with respect to the product line and configured to direct a laser beam in two orthogonal directions to move between different locations and to dwell at the different locations to form marks on the products;
• and
• a laser marking device controller communicatively coupled with the laser marking device, the laser marking device controller being configured to obtain a code to be printed on the products, group discrete symbols in the code with each other into separate symbol groups based on locations of the discrete symbols in the code, organize one or more symbols in each respective symbol group into one or more stripes in a direction perpendicular to a direction of motion of the products in the product line, add an extra distance or a time delay between stripes in at least one of the separate symbol groups to prevent clipping of a symbol by the laser marking device due to a print aperture of the laser marking device, and cause the laser marking device to direct the laser beam in accordance with the separate symbol groups, including using the extra distance or the time delay between the stripes in the at least one of the separate symbol groups.

A computer readable medium encoding instructions operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

• obtaining a code to be printed on one or more products by a laser marking device configured to direct a laser beam in two orthogonal directions to move between different locations and to dwell at the different locations to form marks on the one or more products;
• grouping discrete symbols in the code with each other into separate symbol groups based on locations of the discrete symbols in the code;
• organizing one or more symbols in each respective symbol group into one or more stripes in a direction perpendicular to a direction of motion of the one or more products in a product line configured to move products through a facility;
• adding an extra distance or a time delay between stripes in at least one of the separate symbol groups to prevent clipping of a symbol by the laser marking device due to a print aperture of the laser marking device;
• and
• causing the laser marking device to direct the laser beam in accordance with the separate symbol groups, including using the extra distance or the time delay between the stripes in the at least one of the separate symbol groups.