Whether you’re personalising champagne glasses or adding serial numbers to aircraft components, laser marking has become a crucial tool in the manufacturing process. With specialised software, compact and heavy duty formats, ergonomic features and a world of etching, engraving and cutting possibilities, there are many questions to answer before selecting your equipment or solution. So let’s start with the basics before answering one of the most common questions… What material can laser marking be used on?

The basics

Laser marking, also referred to as laser etching or laser engraving, is a method of producing a high-quality permanent mark using a high-energy laser beam. Depending on the wavelength and the type of material being marked, the physical process of laser marking can involve melting, burning, oxidising, engraving or discolouration to create the desired effect.

As with many industrial processes, laser marking has the potential to produce harmful emissions, so it is important to consider whether the system you choose is safe for the application you require. (In addition, workstations need to be equipped with extraction and filtration options, as well as any other health and safety features necessary to protect the user.)

The equipment

There are a number of laser types, each suited to different needs and applications.

CO2

Ideal for non-metallic materials including glass, plastics, acrylic, textiles, wood and even stone

Better for thicker materials

High-speed

Lower system cost

Fibre

Best for high-contrast marking like metal etching and engraving

Long service life with little maintenance

Often smaller than CO2 lasers

Lower running costs

Hybrid DPSS

Contrasted marking on a range of materials

Particularly effective on plastics

Compact and efficient

Green

Designed for marking highly reflective materials

Marks materials which react poorly or not at all to other infrared wavelengths without altering the material

High precision

The materials

The versatility of laser marking is hard to overstate. Whether your material is plastic, wood, acrylic, metal, glass, leather… there is little that modern lasers cannot handle. Here is a guide to what material can be marked by which laser*:

● = Contrasted marking

○ = Non-contrasted marking

It is also possible to select from a huge range of specially created consumables for laser marking – with choice of material, colour, thickness, sheet size, etc. – and even to have a custom fabrication produced to your own specifications.