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Lasermarking on 416 Stainless steel

Hello, I use a VersaLaser VL200 with an HPDFO head, for small and finite laser marking on 416 stainless medical tools.

I wanted to know if anyone has laser marked unpainted, unpolished stainless and has some tips or chemicals that they use to best clean the surface in preparation.

Right now I use a commercial solvent (Purple Power), methanol [affil links], then acetone ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] Warning! highly Flammable! . I clean my parts in a sonic cleaner with each one of the aforementioned chemicals, one chemical at a time of course. Any critiques on my cleaning process? Suggestions?

Craig Griffin
Dental tooling manufacturing - York, Pennsylvania, USA
September 10, 2010

Update:

I now boil my pieces in a solution of Alconox ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and water, then sonic-clean in methanol [affil links] and sonic-clean in acetone. This seems to work better, but with all of the harsher sterilization procedure on the forefront, are there better ways to go about this laser marking preparatory procedure?

Craig Griffin [returning]
- York, Pennsylvania, USA

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