Have you ever seen the same laser marking machine using two sets of vision modules to drive two fiber lasers to mark both sides of a single workpiece at the same time?

This laser marking machine is tailor-made for a military customer. Due to confidentiality requirements, the customer is reluctant to disclose the details of its products and their location. However, the functional design of this equipment and the problems I found in the process are still worth sharing. The customer’s workpieces are of medium size and large batches, so the whole machine is equipped with a conveyor belt to achieve automatic continuous operation. Due to the complex shapes, various sizes and slight differences of these workpieces, the customer proposed the need for automatic tangent marking to ensure that the marking position always fits the surface features of the workpiece. In addition, there are specific recessed areas on both sides of each workpiece that need to be accurately marked, which requires the marking process to have extremely high positioning accuracy. To this end, we deployed two sets of visual positioning systems in the equipment to control two fiber lasers respectively to achieve synchronous positioning and marking on both sides of the workpiece. This dual-vision + dual-laser design not only improves the marking efficiency, but also ensures the identification and high-precision processing of workpieces of different specifications.

After completing the equipment installation and using the stainless steel cylinder of the customer’s specified size for marking tests, we found a key problem: because there is no partition in the middle of the workpiece, the light from the visual inspection modules on both sides interferes with each other on the surface of the workpiece and the area above it. This light interference affects the accuracy of visual positioning, which in turn affects the marking accuracy. In order to solve this problem, we must fine-tune the template parameters when establishing the marking template, especially in terms of light source brightness and angle, and need to reach a balance point to avoid misidentification caused by light crossing.

To this end, we used two different sizes of ring lights for testing. The smaller ring light showed better focusing effect in some cases, reducing the interference caused by light diffusion. At the same time, we also informed the customer that if necessary, the default ring light can be replaced with a smaller lamp closer to the workpiece. This further improves the recognition stability and marking consistency of the visual system.

After completing the correct setting of all parameters, we conducted continuous tests on more than 20 different types of stainless steel cylindrical workpieces. The test results show that the equipment can automatically identify the size and shape of various workpieces, and automatically call the preset marking template according to the recognition results, including the corresponding serial number format and QR code content. The whole process is fully automatic, and the stability and accuracy have reached the expected standards.

We showed all the marked samples to the customer, and the customer was very satisfied with the marking effect, especially the intelligent recognition ability and processing efficiency of the system. After confirming that the sample was correct, the customer quickly completed the final payment, and the T/T remittance arrived within 24 hours, reflecting their recognition and trust in this project.

It is worth mentioning that compared with the visual inspection and marking solutions currently used by customers, our equipment has significantly reduced the overall cost while maintaining perfect functions, which is very cost-effective. The customer recognized this very much, and specifically asked us to keep the design drawings and template materials of the project safely for future additional purchases or upgrades of similar equipment, indicating its clear intention for future cooperation.

If you’re looking for a custom automatic marking solution that can handle complex shapes with precision, feel free to contact us—we’re ready to support your production needs.