Case study
Traceability marking expected to last for years in the open air
From the moment a surge arrester is commissioned, its caps remain outdoors for the whole service life of the component, which means the marking must stay legible on site and not merely at the end of the production line.
Accurate marking of small components without holding up the manual line
With such a compact cap, there was very little tolerance for positioning errors, whilst the 20-second target cycle time excluded any manual repositioning of the workpiece.
A standard fibre laser L-BOX equipped with a bespoke locating bracket
SIC MARKING retained a standard machine and simply added a locating device that positions each small cap accurately, keeping within PROLEC’s budget without any special engineering.
Dependable traceability from the shop floor to the installation site
Each cap leaves the line carrying a mark durable enough to stay legible in the open air, so PROLEC can rely on traceability for the full service life of the arrester.
PROLEC produces polymeric surge arresters for the power generation sector. Every unit is fitted with a stainless steel cap, supplied with no surface finish, which bears the component’s traceability data: logo, manufacturing month and year, and the power rating.
As surge arresters are installed outdoors once in service, the cap marking cannot be judged against factory conditions alone. PROLEC was looking for a marking process capable of staying legible in an outdoor environment for the whole operating life of the component, so as to guarantee traceability of every part on site.
The cap is a small component (52.40 mm outer diameter, 13 mm inner diameter, 8 mm thick) and must be positioned accurately if it is to be marked consistently. The target cycle time was set at 20 seconds per part, on a manual, non-networked station running at ambient temperature within a clean area.
Since the stainless steel carries no surface finish, the mark had to combine sufficient contrast for direct visual reading with enough resistance to withstand outdoor exposure, all within a solution that fitted the customer’s budget.
SIC MARKING put forward a fibre laser marking solution, a technology well suited to producing a durable mark directly on bare stainless steel with no additional consumables, thereby satisfying PROLEC’s requirement for legibility in outdoor conditions.
The laser is built into a standard L-BOX machine fitted with a locating device which positions the caps accurately for every marking cycle, in spite of their small size. The equipment was left in its standard configuration, able to run on a manual, non-networked station at ambient temperature, which suited both PROLEC’s operational requirements and its budget.
The solution gives the operator straightforward, turnkey operation and allows several parts to be marked in one cycle. It has helped to avoid scrap arising from incorrect marking, whilst giving PROLEC a marking durable enough to underpin traceability once the surge arresters have been installed outdoors.
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