JP7443093B2 - Laser marking device and laser marking method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a laser marking device and a laser marking method.

A laser marking device includes a laser light source, a laser light irradiation section (scanning section) that irradiates a printing medium with laser light emitted from the laser light source, and a control section that controls these. Conventionally, density adjustment of a laser marking device has been performed by combining dot density adjustment and laser output adjustment (see Patent Document 1 below).

JP 2018-12232 Publication

In the laser marking apparatus described above, there may be individual differences in the output of the laser light emitted from the laser light source, and this individual difference causes a problem in that the print density varies.

In contrast, conventional technology adjusts the concentration based on the premise of adjusting the output of the laser light, but for example, when a relatively inexpensive passive Q-switch type pulsed laser is used as the laser light source, Since there is no means to adjust the output of the laser light source, the image density of the printed image tends to vary from one individual to another.

Furthermore, even if the laser light source is capable of adjusting the output of the laser beam, adjusting the output of the laser beam is complicated, and adding this to the adjustment parameters is simply an adjustment to eliminate variations in print density due to individual differences. Despite this, there is a problem in that the adjustment becomes complicated.

If such individual differences in the output of laser light sources are overlooked, when printing on a single product using multiple laser marking devices, each laser marking device used will print with a different density. There was a problem that the quality of the products would vary.

The present invention has been proposed to address such problems. In other words, it is possible to eliminate variations in print density due to individual differences in the output of laser light sources by simple adjustment without adjusting the output of the laser light source, and to improve the quality of the product when printing using multiple laser marking devices. An object of the present invention is to prevent variations in print quality.

In order to solve such problems, the present invention includes the following configuration.
The control unit includes a laser light source, a laser light irradiation unit that irradiates a printing medium with the laser light emitted from the laser light source, and a control unit that controls at least the laser light irradiation unit, and the control unit controls input marking data. , a dot interval adjustment section that adjusts the dot interval and outputs adjusted marking data, and a print control section that performs printing control based on the adjusted marking data, and the dot interval adjustment section is configured to control the laser light source. A laser marking device characterized in that arithmetic processing is performed to obtain the adjusted marking data based on an adjustment coefficient that suppresses density variations due to individual differences in output .

According to the laser marking device having such characteristics, it is possible to eliminate variations in printing density due to individual differences in the output of the laser light source by simple adjustment without adjusting the output of the laser light source. In addition, when printing using multiple laser marking devices, the dot spacing of each laser marking device is adjusted to prevent density variations due to individual differences in the output of the laser light source, so there is no variation in the print quality of the product. This can be prevented from occurring.

An explanatory diagram showing a laser marking device. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration example of a control unit. An explanatory diagram when common marking data is printed using a plurality of laser marking devices. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of the configuration of the laser marking device.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same reference numerals in different figures indicate parts with the same function, and redundant explanation in each figure will be omitted as appropriate.

As shown in FIG. 1, the laser marking device 1 includes a laser light source 2, a laser irradiation section 3, and a control section 4, and irradiates a printing medium W with a laser beam L to mark characters, patterns, etc. (Printing). As the laser light source 2, a pulse oscillation type laser light source can be used, and as a suitable example, a relatively inexpensive passive Q-switch type solid-state laser light source can be used. However, the laser light source 2 is not limited to this.

The laser light irradiation unit 3 irradiates the printing medium W with laser light (for example, pulsed laser light) L emitted from the laser light source 2 according to marking data, and irradiates the printing medium W with the laser light L on the surface of the printing medium W. It includes an optical system (such as an fθ lens) 30 that collects light, a scanner (such as a galvano scanner) 31 that scans the focal position of the laser beam L, and the like.

The scanner 31 includes a drive section 31A, and the drive section 31A is controlled by a control signal output from the control section 4 according to the marking data, so that the laser beam L is emitted onto the printing medium W at a predetermined dot interval. is irradiated, and a print is made on the printing medium W at a predetermined density according to the marking data.

The control section 4 controls at least the operation of the laser beam irradiation section 3, that is, the operation of the drive section 31A of the scanner 31. The control unit 4 may also control operations such as turning on and off the laser light source 2 as appropriate. The control unit 4 is supplied with marking data from a marking data supply unit 5 constituted by a PC (personal computer) or the like. The laser marking device 1 may be constructed by removing the marking data supply section 5 as shown in the figure, or may be constructed including the marking data supply section 5.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the control section 4. As shown in FIG. The control unit 4 includes a dot interval adjustment unit 40 that adjusts the dot interval with respect to input marking data and outputs adjusted marking data, and a printing control unit that outputs a control signal to perform printing control based on the adjusted marking data. 41. Further, the control unit 4 may include an adjustment coefficient storage unit 42 that stores adjustment coefficients to be described later as appropriate.

The dot spacing adjustment section 40 in the control section 4 outputs adjusted marking data in which the dot spacing is adjusted in order to suppress variations in density due to individual differences in the output of the laser light sources 2. The output of the laser light source 2 varies depending on the individual laser light sources 2. On the other hand, the dot spacing parameter of the input marking data is determined for each input marking data. As a result, when common marking data is input to the control unit 4 of different laser marking devices 1, if there is no adjustment by the dot spacing adjustment unit 40, the print density will change due to variations in the output of each individual laser light source 2. This will result in variations in the amount of data.

When the output of each individual laser light source 2 is lower than the standard, the dot interval adjustment unit 40 adjusts the dot interval parameter of the input marking data to narrow the dot interval, thereby improving the print density of the marking result. If the output of each individual laser light source 2 is higher than the standard, adjust the dot spacing parameter of the input marking data to widen the dot spacing to increase the print density of the marking result. Adjust lower.

The degree of adjustment by which the dot interval adjustment unit 40 adjusts the dot interval parameters of the marking data input to the control unit 4 depends on each individual laser light source 2 included in the laser marking device 1, that is, the degree of adjustment of the dot interval parameter of the marking data input to the control unit 4. Since the density is determined for each individual, it can be determined for each individual laser marking device 1 by comparing the density of the figure marked by the laser light source 2 with the reference density when assembling the laser marking device 1. Furthermore, even after the laser marking device 1 is assembled, the degree of adjustment described above can be determined by measuring the density of the figure marked by the laser marking device 1 incorporating the laser light source 2 at the installation site. .

The degree of adjustment in the dot interval adjustment unit 40 described above is determined as an adjustment coefficient for each individual laser marking device 1, and is stored in the adjustment coefficient storage unit 42 provided in the control unit 4 of each laser marking device 1 before the device is shipped. This adjustment coefficient is stored at various times. Then, the dot interval adjustment section 40 performs arithmetic processing to obtain adjusted marking data based on the adjustment coefficients stored in the adjustment coefficient storage section 42.

The print control section 41 outputs a control signal for controlling the drive section 31A of the laser beam irradiation section 3 based on the adjusted marking data output from the dot interval adjustment section 40. Thereby, the laser marking device 1 can mark common marking data with the same printing density even if there are individual differences in the output of the laser light source 2 installed.

Such a laser marking device 1 is effective when printing common marking data using a plurality of laser marking devices 1. As shown in FIG. 3, when common original marking data is input from the marking data supply section 5 to a plurality of laser marking devices 1A, 1B, 1C,..., each laser marking device 1A, 1B, 1C,... By storing adjustment coefficients A, B, and C according to each individual in the adjustment coefficient storage unit 42, adjusted markings input to the printing control unit 41 in each laser marking device 1A, 1B, 1C, . . . The data is adjusted for each individual. As a result, even if there are individual differences in the output of the laser light source 2 in each laser marking device 1A, 1B, 1C, ..., the marking results by the plurality of laser marking devices 1A, 1B, 1C, ... Variations in shading are suppressed, and a product of uniform quality can be obtained.

In the example described above, the dot spacing adjustment section 40 is provided in the control section 4, but as shown in FIG. 4, the dot spacing adjustment section 40 may be provided on the marking data supply section 5 side (PC side). In this case, the dot interval adjustment unit 40 obtains adjusted marking data for each individual laser marking device 1 from the original marking data generated by the marking data generation unit 50 in the marking data supply unit 5, and calculates the adjusted marking data for each individual laser marking device 1. is supplied to each laser marking device 1A, 1B, 1C. At this time, the marking data supply unit 5 is provided with adjustment coefficients for each individual laser marking device 1 as a data table 51, and the dot interval adjustment unit 40 uses these adjustment coefficients individually to obtain adjusted marking data. .

According to the laser marking method using the laser marking device 1 described above, there is a dot spacing adjustment step of adjusting the dot spacing to obtain adjusted marking data with respect to the original marking data, and a printing control process using the adjusted marking data. In the dot spacing adjustment step, calculation processing is performed to obtain adjusted marking data based on an adjustment coefficient that suppresses density variations due to individual differences in the output of the laser light source 2, so the printing quality of the product is improved. It is possible to prevent variations from occurring.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above in detail with reference to the drawings, the specific configuration is not limited to these embodiments, and the design may be changed without departing from the gist of the present invention. Even if there is, it is included in the present invention. Moreover, the above-described embodiments can be combined by using each other's technologies unless there is a particular contradiction or problem in the purpose, structure, etc.

1: Laser marking device, 2: Laser light source, 3: Laser light irradiation part,
4: Control unit, 5: Marking data supply unit,
30: Optical system, 31: Scanner, 31A: Drive unit,
40: dot interval adjustment section, 41; printing control section, 42: adjustment coefficient storage section,
50: marking data generation section, 51: data table,
L: Laser light, W: Printing medium

Claims (5)

comprising a laser light source, a laser light irradiation unit that irradiates a printing medium with the laser light emitted from the laser light source, and a control unit that controls at least the laser light irradiation unit,
The control unit includes:
a dot interval adjustment unit that adjusts dot intervals with respect to input marking data and outputs adjusted marking data;
and a printing control unit that controls printing based on the adjusted marking data,
The laser marking device is characterized in that the dot interval adjustment unit performs arithmetic processing to obtain the adjusted marking data based on an adjustment coefficient that suppresses density variations due to individual differences in output of the laser light sources . 2. The laser marking device according to claim 1 , wherein the adjustment coefficient is determined by comparing the density of marking for each individual of the laser light source with a reference density. 3. The laser marking device according to claim 1 , wherein the control section includes a storage section that stores the adjustment coefficient for each individual. The laser marking device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , further comprising a marking data supply section that supplies common marking data to a plurality of the laser marking devices. a dot interval adjustment step of adjusting the dot interval with respect to the original marking data to obtain adjusted marking data;
and a printing process in which printing is controlled based on the adjusted marking data,
The dot spacing adjustment step includes:
A laser marking method, characterized in that arithmetic processing is performed to obtain the adjusted marking data based on an adjustment coefficient that suppresses density variations due to individual differences in output of laser light sources.

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