Marking Stainless Steel with Lasers
Stainless steel is a substrate which many companies use as their preferred tag, label, or identification plate. Marking this material can be done in more than one way and it depends on the needs of the customer. The main question that we always need to know is this: Do you want to cut into the stainless steel or mark it with a permanent bond that doesn't? Here's an example. A customer brought us a part yesterday that needed to be marked with some information. They did not want the part "cut into" so we explained the CO2 marking process. In this process, a heat soluble marking solution is applied to the part in the area to be mark. The laser is used to permanently mark with high resolution and contrast, without damage to the substrate. The resulting mark is fused to the substrate and in most cases as durable as the substrate itself. These type of markings are extremely durable and have survived such testing as abrasion resistance, chemical resistance, outdoor exposure, extreme heat and cold, acids, bases and various organic solvents.This marking process gives you a surface marking that has a nice black contrast that can easily be read.
The other way to mark stainless steel with a laser is by cutting into the substrate. This involves a different type of laser, a fibermark laser. If you want to know the science behind how the fibermark works you can read it here, or you can watch how the fibermark laser cuts into a "Yeti" stainless steel tumbler in this video.
The mark made by the fibermark laser is basically immune to everything since it is cut into the substrate. Because it has some depth, the only way it can be removed is to remove the stainless steel around it! It is a permanent mark.
As you can see there are two very good ways for us to mark your stainless steel items. Which process is best for you depends on your needs. Allow us to work with you to find the one that works the best for your particular product on this particular job. That is what we do and we do it well.