If you want to mark metal, you need to purchase an optical fiber laser marking machine. Or if you want to mark organic materials such as textiles, wood or cardboard, CO2 laser is the best choice.
Moreover, if your application is metal laser cutting, you may need high-power CW (continuous wave) fiber laser.
The main difference that determines the type of material each laser can handle is the wavelength. The wavelength of a fiber laser is usually 1060 nm, while that of a CO2 laser is 10600 nm. Generally, fiber lasers have many advantages over carbon dioxide lasers.
Which CO2 or optical fiber laser marking machine should be purchased?
Fiber laser
Fiber lasers are best suited for high contrast marking, such as metal annealing, etching, and engraving. Their extremely small focal length (up to 100 times the intensity of the CO2 system) makes them ideal for permanently marking serial numbers, barcodes and data matrices on metals. Fiber lasers are widely used for product traceability (direct part marking) and identification applications.
One advantage is that the fiber laser is maintenance free and has a long service life (our laser has a service life of at least 100000 working hours). They are also smaller than CO2 lasers. Plus, due to the high electrical efficiency of fiber lasers. They use significantly less power than CO2 lasers, saving significant costs for cutting applications.
Fiber lasers are also increasingly needed for industrial cleaning applications, such as removing rust, paint, oxides and other contaminants.
CO2 laser
CO2 laser marking is very suitable for various non-metallic materials, including plastics, textiles, glass, acrylic acid, wood, and even stone. They are used for drug and food packaging, as well as the marking of PVC pipes, building materials, mobile communication gadgets, electrical appliances, integrated circuits and electronic components.
If you need to cut thick materials, it is better to use a CO2 laser. When cutting materials above 5 mm, the CO2 laser has faster initial perforation time, faster linear cutting and higher surface finish.
Unfortunately, CO2 lasers consume much more power than fiber lasers, resulting in higher operating costs. For example, when operating at maximum power, high-power CO2 lasers and coolers will consume about 70 kW. A fiber laser of similar power consumes about 18 kW.
The cost of CO2 lasers is often lower than that of fiber lasers.
conclusion
Although each laser has its advantages and unique use cases, CO2 is an older technology. With the development of technology, fiber lasers are rapidly gaining market share. Compared with CO2 laser, with the advantage of speed, almost half of the operating cost and three to four times of the throughput, the use of fiber laser is more cost-effective.