Technical Paper Overview
High-Performance Marking & Coding: Why CO₂ Laser Choice Drives Yield
Power stability, not headline wattage, decides marking yield on production lines.
Two CO₂ lasers can ship with identical spec sheets — same wattage, same wavelength options, same M² — and produce different yield numbers on the same production line. The difference usually isn’t visible until the first hour of a morning shift, when one laser is hitting target consistency from the first part and the other is still climbing toward stability while scrap accumulates against the day’s targets.
This technical paper from Novanta Applications Engineer Lauren Knollmeyer explains the specifications that actually determine marking and coding performance in high-volume production: cold-start power stability, wavelength choice (9.3 µm, 10.2 µm, 10.6 µm), beam quality, and the reliability engineering that separates the Synrad vi- and ti-Series from low-price alternatives — features that don’t appear on the datasheet but show up in lifetime ownership cost.
Key takeaways include:
- Why cold-start power stability — not warm-state spec — determines daily yield and scrap on high-speed lines
- How wavelength choice (9.3 µm, 10.2 µm, 10.6 µm) determines mark legibility per substrate
- When low-priced CO₂ lasers cost more across the system lifetime, and how to spot the warning signs early
- What engineering features (gas seal integrity, beam quality, thermal stability) separate high-performance from low-price CO₂ lasers
- A practical pre-specification application-testing framework for validating laser-material pairings before purchase
Download the full technical paper for the complete high-performance versus low-price comparison, the application-testing framework Novanta uses to validate laser-material pairings before specification, and the engineering criteria you can apply to any CO₂ laser for marking and coding — not just Novanta’s — before lifetime cost surprises show up post-launch.
