Analysis of Nd: YAG Laser Marking Characteristics on Alumina Ceramics

Laser marking process has excellent features over other marking processes due to its high-speed and precise process with excellent reproducibility and flexibility. Ceramic is a difficult material to be processed by conventional marking techniques due to its high hardness and brittleness. This paper presents the analysis of Nd: YAG laser marking process parameters like pulse frequency, lamp current, laser scanning speed on various laser marking characteristics like mark width, mark depth and mark intensity on alumina ceramic. Analysis shows that mark depth, mark width and mark intensity depends on the interaction process of the laser beam and the material, which further relies on the process parameters. Moreover pulse frequency has a major role in the vaporization of the material, which in turn affects the mark efficiency. An increase in the pulse frequency results in minimum mark width and mark depth. In addition to it, lamp current controls the laser power output and the scanning speed plays an important role in the overlapping of the laser spot. From the analysis it has been found that high lamp current is necessary to achieve maximum mark width and mark depth. Analysis based on optical photographs has also been performed. © 2013, The Institution of Engineers (India).