Industry status and forecast: global and Chinese laser marking

1. Overview and principle of laser marking

Laser marking technology is a new type of non-contact, pollution-free and damage-free marking technology. It integrates laser technology, computer technology and mechatronics technology. It is currently the most widely used advanced manufacturing technology for laser processing technology. The principle of laser marking is to use a high-energy density laser to locally irradiate the workpiece to vaporize the surface material or produce a chemical reaction of color change, thereby leaving a permanent mark. The laser marking process can be divided into the following steps:

The first step: the laser acts on the surface of the material. The laser beam used in the laser marking field is usually a pulsed laser, and the laser outputs a pulse in a specific period of time. To control the laser beam acting on the material, it is necessary to control important parameters such as scanning speed and scanning distance.

Step 2: The material absorbs laser energy. After the laser beam acts on the surface of the material, most of the laser energy is reflected, and only a small part of the energy is absorbed by the material and converted into heat. Laser marking needs to absorb enough energy to melt/vaporize the surface material.

The third part: the surface of the material expands locally, the roughness changes, and the mark is formed. When the material melts and cools in a short period of time, the roughness of the material surface will change, forming a permanent mark. The marking content includes codes, signs, graphics, etc.

Chart 1: Steps of laser marking

As a new modern processing technology, laser marking technology has the advantages of high precision, good effect, wide application range, environmental protection, no consumables, fast speed and high efficiency compared with traditional processing methods.

Chart 2: Comparison of laser marking and traditional processing methods

Laser marking is the application field of laser equipment with the earliest development of laser technology application and the highest penetration rate. Laser marking machines have been widely used in optical fiber communications, laser space long-distance communications, industrial processing, military and national defense security, medical equipment and instruments, and large-scale foundations. Construction and other fields.

2. Development of the global laser marking market

(1) The rapid development of laser marking, and the rapid rise of foreign laser companies

Since its appearance in the 1970s, laser marking has developed rapidly. By 1988, it accounted for 29% of global industrial laser applications and became one of the largest industrial laser applications. Laser marking is one of the most widely used technologies in the field of laser processing. In industrially developed countries, laser marking technology is effectively combined with computer numerical control technology and flexible manufacturing technology, resulting in a variety of freely developed marking systems. The upsurge in the development of industrial processing and manufacturing has led to the emergence of many marking equipment manufacturers worldwide, such as Control Laser Corp in the United States, Schlumberger in Germany, Prima in Italy, and NEC in Japan. Years of research and development experience, production technology and marking process tend to be perfect, the laser marking machine produced is highly automated and practical, and is trusted by customers.

(2) Laser technology is becoming more and more mature, and the laser marking market scale is growing steadily

Laser marking machine technology is one of the earliest laser equipment used in the field of laser technology and laser industry. The global leader in laser marking-Gravotech entered the laser marking market in 1995, and was established in 1996 as a leading domestic laser equipment company- Han's Laser started with a button laser marking machine. With the gradual maturity of laser technology and the stable development of the global economy, the demand for laser marking in the fields of material processing, communications, medical treatment, instrumentation and other fields has grown steadily, and the global laser marking machine market is also growing steadily. According to data released by Research and Markets, in 2020, the global laser marking market will reach US$2.7 billion, with an average compound growth rate of 5.6% from 2014 to 2020.

Chart 3: Global laser marking machine market size and growth rate

3. The development of China's laser marking market

(1) Laser marking technology is becoming more and more mature, and application fields are accelerating penetration

Laser marking is the use of laser as a processing method to make marks composed of numbers, characters, patterns, etc. on the surface of various mechanical parts, electronic components, instruments, tools and other objects that need to be marked. China's laser industry started in the 1960s, and in the late 1970s, laser marking technology began to gradually rise. The country began to support laser processing projects from the "Six. Five" plan. From the end of "Seven. Five" to the beginning of "8. Five", professional manufacturers of laser processing systems gradually began to appear in China. In the 1990s, with lasers and computers With the development of technology, laser marking technology is becoming more and more mature, and laser marking equipment is constantly improving. At the same time, our country also attaches great importance to laser marking technology, including the development of laser marking machine into the national production, education and research project.

After entering the 21st century, the laser marking machines produced by some domestic enterprises have been comparable to foreign products, and are even stronger than foreign products in Chinese character functions. At the same time, the production cost of domestic laser marking machines is relatively low. Have strong competitiveness. Domestic laser marking machines have been widely used in industries such as auto parts production, electronic components production, medical instruments and equipment production, and gift processing.

(2) Competition is becoming increasingly fierce, and companies are beginning to seek transformation and upgrading

With the continuous maturity of domestic laser technology, the price of lasers has gradually declined, and the threshold of competition in the laser marking market has gradually decreased. The competition in the domestic market has become increasingly fierce. The gross profit of laser marking of some enterprises has reached close to 5%, which has exceeded 10% of regular laser marking equipment manufacturers- 15% gross profit lower limit.

With the increasingly fierce competition in the laser marking market and the gradual decline in gross profit, many laser marking companies have sought new development directions. From the current development situation, there are three modes of transformation of laser marking companies: 1. It is shifting from domestic to foreign markets; the second is to deploy high value-added markets such as laser cutting, laser welding or laser cleaning; the third is to abandon the low-end market and focus on the vertical segment of the industry as a customized market. Most domestic equipment companies will adopt the first and second transformation models at the same time, such as Bond, Dapeng, Jinwei, Feiquan, Kuntai, etc., all belong to this type of enterprise; Dapeng Laser, Feiquan Laser, Tianhong Laser, etc. vigorously explored the laser cutting, welding and other markets, and Minglei Laser entered the cleaning machine market. Foreign market transfer and product diversification have become the common development path of laser marking machine companies. Companies such as Zhengye Technology and Laserao focus on the layout of PCB QR code marking, microelectronics and film marking and other market segments, taking the route of high-end products.

Chart 4: The transformation of domestic laser marking enterprises

Fourth, the development trend forecast of laser marking industry

(1) Development trend of laser marking technology

1. Automation and intelligence

In the era of digital economy, the development of digital technology has greatly improved the efficiency of production and innovation, and the effective integration of laser technology and numerical control technology, laser equipment will have the ability to analyze, judge, reason and make decisions on the process, so as to realize all parts of the manufacturing equipment Automation and intelligence. At the same time, the labor cost of the laser industry continues to rise, and the industrial technology is upgraded and iteratively, which also promotes the development of laser marking equipment in the direction of higher automation and intelligence. It can be predicted that with the rapid advancement of the smart manufacturing strategy, the digitization and intelligence of the laser marking field will become an inevitable trend of development. Highly intelligent multi-functional laser marking equipment will continue to emerge and greatly improve industrial processing. The efficiency of realizing high-efficiency production management.

2. High power, high efficiency, high precision

With the development of the laser industry and changes in the needs of downstream industries, medium and high-power laser equipment has become a hot spot in the market. With the upgrading of laser equipment, high-power and high-speed laser marking equipment will have significant efficiency and accuracy advantages. Further replace the traditional processing equipment, greatly improve the efficiency and quality of industrial processing.

3. Flexible and integrated

In the era of intelligent manufacturing, downstream users' processing scenarios tend to be diversified and complicated, and the individual requirements for laser marking equipment are increasing. Laser enterprise products are required to be more flexible and suitable for different processing scenarios to meet the diverse needs of customers. Therefore, the use of modular design to improve equipment integration, adaptability, and functionality, and to achieve consumer demand-oriented flexible production, will become an important development direction for the laser marking equipment industry in the future.

Chart 5: Development Trend of Laser Marking Technology

(2) Laser marking machine product types will be further enriched

From the point of view of laser marking laser type, the main products of the current laser marking machine market are CO2 laser marking machine, semiconductor laser marking machine, fiber laser marking machine, ultraviolet laser marking machine and other products. From the aspect of laser marking products, the main products in the current laser marking market are desktop laser marking machines, portable laser marking machines, and flying laser marking machines. In the future, as the global laser marking machine industry chain companies continue to make progress and breakthroughs in technology and product research and development, there will be more and more ultra-fast laser marking machines, green laser marking machines, and 3D lasers in the laser marking market. Marking machines and other more abundant laser marking machine products provide a wider range of product choices for downstream end-application customers.