Automatic Manufacture of Barcode Rod Tape Using Laser Ablation and Laser Interferometry
M. Zhao, Q-H. Huang, L-J. Zhu and Z-M. Qiu
The precise and automatic manufacture of a barcode tape for levelling rods was studied. By analysing the principle of laser ablation, the invar tape with black paint on the top and yellow paint on the bottom was designed. The black and yellow barcode was formed by ablating the upper paint at designated positions. A laser engraving machine only ablated the basic code to improve the barcode quality, and any barcode can be spliced from the basic code. The tape was positioned using a laser interferometer and a motion control system. The barcode tape was formed using a serial combination of positioning and ablation. The optimized parameters were determined by combining analysis, comprehensive experiment and orthogonal test. The system and the method for the automatic manufacture of barcode tape have been applied to production.
Keywords: Fibre laser, laser interferometer, barcode tape ablation, automatic manufacture, precision, parameter optimization