étude de cas
Traceability marking that has to endure years outdoors
Once a surge arrester goes into service, its caps are exposed outdoors for the entire life of the component; the marking therefore needs to remain readable in the field, well beyond the end of the production line.
Precise marking of small parts while keeping the manual line on pace
Given the cap’s reduced dimensions, positioning had to be exact every time, and a target cycle time of 20 seconds meant no manual repositioning step could be added to the process.
A standard L-BOX fibre laser with a custom-designed locating bracket
Rather than engineering a special machine, SIC MARKING kept the L-BOX in its standard configuration and added a locating fixture that positions every small cap accurately, in line with PROLEC’s budget.
Traceability you can count on, from the plant floor to the field
The caps come off the line with a mark durable enough to remain readable outdoors, which gives PROLEC assurance of traceability over the entire service life of the arrester.
PROLEC manufactures polymeric surge arresters for the power generation industry. Each unit is fitted with a stainless steel cap, left without surface finish, that carries the part’s traceability information: logo, month and year of manufacture, and power rating.
Because surge arresters are installed outdoors once in service, the cap marking cannot be limited to factory conditions. PROLEC needed a marking method able to remain legible under outdoor environmental conditions throughout the component’s operating life, in order to guarantee traceability of each part in the field.
The cap is a small part (52.40 mm outer diameter, 13 mm inner diameter, 8 mm thickness), which requires precise positioning to mark it consistently. The target cycle time was 20 seconds per part, on a manual, non-communicating station operating at ambient temperature in a clean zone.
The stainless steel has no surface finish, so the marking had to produce a result that is both contrasted enough for direct visual reading and resistant enough to survive outdoor exposure, all within a solution matching the client’s budget.
SIC MARKING proposed a fiber laser marking solution, a technology suited to producing a durable mark directly on bare stainless steel without added consumables, which meets PROLEC’s requirement for legibility under outdoor conditions.
The laser is integrated in a standard L-BOX machine, equipped with a locator device to position the caps precisely for each marking cycle despite their small dimensions. The equipment was kept as a standard configuration, operable on a manual, non-communicating station at ambient temperature, which matched PROLEC’s operational needs and budget.
The solution delivers simple, turnkey operation for the operator, with the ability to mark several parts in a single cycle. This has helped prevent scrap caused by incorrect marking, while providing PROLEC with a marking durable enough to support traceability once the surge arresters are deployed outdoors.
