Metal plates are used in a variety of industries, especially in environments where durable product identification is required, and direct part marking is not feasible or desired. Marked plates can be attached to the product requiring identification by various methods including rivets, adhesive etc. Plates pre-marked with generic information using conventional printing methods (silk screen, pad etc.) can have unique data added at a later time using embossers or mechanical engraving methods. Lasers have an advantage whereby complex logos, lines, boxes and generic plus unique data can be applied to a blank metal plate to complete the process in one step.

Embossing Equipment

The process whereby a metal plate is marked by pressing the metal between a male and female die engraved with the desired character. Various die sets are available offering different sizes and fonts styles.

Mechanical Engraving, dot peen or scribing

In dot peen marking a vibrating stylus (carbide tipped) is guided across the material using X and Y axis to form the desired characters, the plate or object to be marked needs to be clamped firmly. The scribing process also uses an X and Y carriage system but in this case the stylus is plunged into the material and dragged through the material to create a continuous line. As the applied forces are considerably higher than the dot peen process the component clamping needs to be extremely rigid. Dot peen markers can achieve fairly high quality 2D matrix codes.

Laser Engraving

A beam of concentrated laser light is guided over the metal plate using a system of mirrors to create the mark. By varying the speed, pulse frequency and focus distance various types of mark can be applied ranging from engraving to annealing. As no force is applied to the plate being marked the fixturing needs only be positional rather than clamping. Marking lasers utilise a graphics based interface whereby any text, logos, etc that can be shown on a PC screen can also be marked onto a plate. Lasers offer the best results when it comes to marking unique 1D and 2D codes. Identisys can also offer advice regarding suppliers of screen or pad printed metal plates as well as information regarding chemical etching equipment.