Yes, because the mark is a change in the material itself rather than something applied on top of it. There is no ink to smudge, no label to peel and no coating to wear off. How well it survives depends on the mark type you choose: a surface etch or anneal is permanent under normal handling, washing and oil, while a mark that has to survive abrasion, machining, heat treatment or being painted over should be deep engraved so it has physical depth rather than only contrast.

Choose the smallest field that comfortably covers your largest mark. 150 x 150 mm suits small components, fasteners, tools and jewellery and gives the finest detail; 175 x 175 mm adds fixturing margin; 200 x 200 mm is the common all-round size for mid-size parts and nameplates; 300 x 300 mm suits large nameplates, panels and full trays of small parts. The field is set by the lens fitted at purchase, so it is a one-time decision – the exception to “smallest is best” is batch marking, where a larger field lets you jig many parts and mark them in one cycle.

It depends on whether you are marking the surface or removing material. 20 W covers surface marking on metals and plastics at standard speeds – serial numbers, barcodes, QR codes, logos and batch codes. 50 W is for deep engraving to measurable depth, hardened tool steel, mould and die work, and for finishing the same mark faster on a high-throughput line. 30 W sits in between. If the mark only has to be seen and scanned, the lower end does it.

Mild and carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminium including anodised finishes, brass, copper and titanium, plus dark or filled engineering plastics. Metals are where fiber laser marking is strongest. Anodised, painted, plated and powder-coated surfaces are marked by ablation, which removes the coating to reveal the base material underneath. It is not the right machine for cutting non-metals – for acrylic and plastic sheet cutting, a CO2 laser is the correct technology.

Annealing oxidises the surface below melting point to produce a dark mark without removing any material, so the surface stays smooth and sealed. Ask for it on stainless steel and titanium parts used in food, pharmaceutical, medical and surgical applications, or anything that gets washed down – an etched groove can hold residue and complicate cleaning, whereas an annealed mark leaves nothing to trap. It is a parameter set on the same machine, not a different machine.

Yes, with the rotary axis attachment. It grips the part in a chuck and turns it under the beam in coordination with the galvo head, so text or a logo runs continuously around the full 360° instead of stopping where the flat field ends. Without it you would mark one face, re-fixture by hand and mark again, leaving a visible join and a positional error. Specify the rotary axis with the original order – adding it later costs meaningfully more.

Fiber laser marking is non-contact, so there is no stylus force on the part and no tool to wear out, and nothing is applied to the surface – no ink, ribbon, stencil or chemical. The consumable here is the lens, cleaned regularly and replaced when it degrades. It resolves far finer detail than dot-peen, which matters for small data-matrix codes, and the mark cannot be wiped off the way ink can. Dot-peen still has a place where deep impact marking on rough surfaces is wanted, and inkjet where the code is meant to be temporary.

The consumable to budget for is the lens – cleaned regularly and replaced when it degrades. There is no assist gas, no nozzle and no ink, so beyond the lens the running cost is essentially electricity. The rest of the maintenance is optical and mechanical: clean the lens more often in a dusty or oily workshop, since a dirty or worn one shows up as a weak uneven mark; periodic galvo mirror and optical path checks; keep the Z-axis and table clean, because debris under a part changes the focal height without anyone noticing; extraction filter checks; and an annual technical inspection.

The beam is invisible at the fiber wavelength and reflects readily off bright metal, so wavelength-rated eye protection is required for everyone in the working area rather than the operator alone. Where a safety enclosure or interlocks are supplied, they exist to stop the beam firing in an unsafe condition and must never be bypassed. Fume extraction is required wherever coated, painted, plated or plastic parts are marked, since the process vaporises that surface layer. We cover the full safety setup during installation.

Price depends on the power tier, the marking area fitted and whether the rotary axis attachment is included – a 20 W system with a 150 x 150 mm field and a 50 W system with a 300 x 300 mm field and a rotary axis sit at different points in the range. We quote against a confirmed specification rather than publishing a fixed figure, because the right configuration depends on your parts and mark type. Send your material, part size, mark type and whether any parts are round for a detailed quotation.

Yes, and on a marking machine we strongly recommend it. Mark contrast varies with material grade, surface finish and coating far more than most buyers expect, and a sample on your actual parts is the only reliable way to confirm the result before committing. Send or bring the parts you intend to mark along with the mark type you need – and if the code has to be machine-readable, bring your scanner too. Facility visits to our Ahmedabad plant are welcome by appointment.