Laser marking of components at the engine specialist Van der Graaf.

Headquartered in Canada, the Van der Graaf company is a leading international manufacturer of drum motors. Most of its customers are manufacturers of transport and conveyor systems, which are used worldwide for a variety of purposes and in a wide range of conditions. The applications range from conveyor belts in industrial manufacturing processes to baggage handling systems at airports and conveyor technology for parcel sorting systems.
The reliable core of these conveyor systems consists of the completely enclosed drum motors. At the company's Canadian site in Brampton, Ontario, a SpeedMarker 700 is used for marking tasks to mark components and nameplates for these engines.

In order to be able to flexibly mark flange parts or nameplates, the Trotec Galvo laser has been adapted several times at Van der Graaf. On the one hand, several workpiece carriers were created, which can be changed quickly to accommodate a wide variety of types of parts and nameplates. Completing the changeover on the laser machine barely takes one minute. Corresponding templates were created in the laser software for each of the workpiece carriers and types of components or nameplates, which can be called up manually or automatically via the production order. The workpiece carriers don't need to be completely filled; any number of parts can be marked.

By connecting the Trotec SpeedMark laser software to the ERP system, the machine operator can scan the barcode on the production order using a hand-held scanner. The laser software is then supplied with the information on the part type and marking content, such as part numbers, serial numbers, quantities, etc. from the ERP system. The information about the respective placement of the marking on the component and on the workpiece carrier is stored in the laser software. The employee simply has to carry out the appropriate loading, scan the order and start the marking process.

Every company has different approaches for the optimal operation of a machine. This means that the HMI (human machine interface) of the Trotec laser marking machine can be adapted accordingly, in order to provide a suitable and simple graphical user interface in addition to the standard software. In standard operation, the individual user interface can then be used that is particularly suitable for operation with workpiece carriers. If special individual parts need to be marked or new workpiece carriers need to be set up, the standard interface of the SpeedMark software can be changed at any time.