Amada Weld Tech (Monrovia, Calif.) announces today that it is now offering black, corrosion-resistant marking capability for the medical device manufacturing industry.
Generated using a picosecond laser, this mark is often used for stainless steel implantable devices and surgical tools (e.g. banding around trocars or UDI marking on surgical scalpels). It may also be employed on polymers often used in medical devices. The ultrashort pulse durations of the picosecond laser enables it to impart energy to a material surface with almost no thermal effect, according to Amada Weld Tech.
Unlike the heat-generated annealed marks made with fiber lasers, marks created by picosecond IR lasers are extremely high-contrast, periodic nanostructures with antireflective properties that make the marks appear deep black against their surroundings, the company added. They are restructured surface material rather than an oxide layer, making them highly resistant to bacterial growth, passivation, corrosion and autoclaving.