Laser marking apparatus and methods
AssigneeSpectrum Technologies, Inc.
InventorsJohn Moss, Simon Lau, David Keston Phillips
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for laser marking a moving workpiece such as a wire or cable directs a substantially constant rapidly pulsed laser beam at a frequency of at least 15 Hz towards a low inertia, low mass rotatable mask with character apertures disposed around its periphery. The mask is driven asynchronously to present successive characters with each pulse to form a composite image.
Claims18
Laser marking apparatus for marking a succession of characters on a workpiece (12) to form a composite image thereon comprising:
- a generally constant pulsed source (26) of laser radiation for producing a series of laser pulses at a rate of at least 15 Hz, defining a pulsed beam of radiation,
- a rotatable mask (30) for being illuminated by said radiation beam and including a plurality of character apertures spaced angularly around the axis of rotation thereof;
- drive means (32) for rotating said rotatable mask (30), and
- control means (24) for controlling said drive means (32) intermittently to index said rotatable mask (30) after each of said laser pulses to align a successive character aperture with said laser beam, thereby to produce a succession of characters on said workpiece (12) to form said composite image.
A laser marking method which comprises marking a succession of characters on a workpiece (12) to form a composite image thereon, said method comprising generating a pulsed beam of laser radiation at a generally constant pulse rate of at least 15 Hz to pass to a rotatable mask (30) carrying a set of mask character apertures thereon, indexing the mask (30) discretely after each of said laser pulses to align a successive character aperture with said laser beam, thereby to produce a composite image comprising a succession of characters on said workpiece (12).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.