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Laser mark Alochromed Aluminium

Our company manufactures products for the military industry, a customer of ours has requested that we permanently mark our units, with info like serial/part no's. The unit bodies are manufactured from Alochromed Aluminium,would laser marking the best method to permanently etch information onto the units? does it damage the surface of the coating, and if so, can it be manually 'touched up' easily? no degradation of the base material is acceptable, your comments/ideas are requested.

Mark Greaves
process engineer - Plymouth, Devon, UK
April 21, 2009

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First of two simultaneous responses --

Yes it will affect the chromated surface and no it will not touch up perfectly. Give them some samples and see if they will accept it that way.
Laser marking and then chromating might make the ID difficult to read. If you can not laser etch deep enough, consider engraving and then chromating.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
April 27, 2009

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Second of two simultaneous responses -- April 28, 2009

Mark,

Personally I would not laser mark Alocromed surfaces. The localised heating of the laser marking is sufficient to dehydrate the coating and locally destroy the coating.

If it was me I would probably ink mark and overcoat the marking with a chemical resistant varnish.

Brian Terry
Aerospace - Yeovil, Somerset, UK

Do you know of any inkjet UID part marking suppliers in the UK? I am struggling to find any outside US.

Mark Greaves
- Plymouth, Devon, UK
May 1, 2009