Laser marking vs laser coding systems

This is a question we are often asked and to be honest there is no exact answer, it is very much down to interpretation. Despite this, we have a simple explanation that we offer to all of our potential customers and this is explained below.

Laser marking systems; these are systems we generally use for industrial laser marking, meaning the marking of metals, hard plastics etc in industrial manufacturing applications. These customers are generally operating in the tooling, automotive and aerospace sectors. Some people often refer to this type of laser marking as laser etching and our laser systems are often installed as a replacement for electrochemical etching and dot peening.

Here at The Needham Group we supply both Diode Pumped YAG and Fiber laser marking machines for these types of application. We can offer both in-line (dynamic) and off-line (static) laser marking solutions so if you are looking to mark metals and hard plastics then please contact us.

Laser coding systems; these laser systems are generally used in the packaging sector for marking best before dates and batch codes onto cradboard packaging, plastic PET bottels etc. These customers generally operate in the food, beverage, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and extrusion sectors. Our laser coding systems are generally installed on in-line applications and often replace ink jet systems.

At The Needham Group we supply a wide range of CO2 laser coding systems specifically designed for the packaging sector.