Posting a part
Pick the capability study option and describe the material, the surface condition it arrives in and what the mark has to survive. The address and the packing note come back by email.
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A marking programme is decided by the part, not by the meeting
Every figure published on this site is a typical envelope from our own testing. The binding number is the one measured on your own material and written into the acceptance criteria, and that measurement starts with a part arriving here. Nearly every failed marking project was decided in a room with no part in it. Use the form to open a capability study, a software question or a systems enquiry, and if a production line is already in scope, book a site scope directly.
- Post a part, a crate, an offcut or a length of stock, and the study runs on the material in the condition it reaches the station
- The report states the parameter set, the verification grade against the applicable standard and the durability result against the conditions you name
- Capability studies, software questions, systems enquiries and supplier approval requests each route to the engineer who owns them
Contact Light Lane
Send the part or the question
Tell us what the enquiry is about and it routes to the engineer who owns it. Posting a part, send this first and the shipping address comes back by return email with the study reference already on it.
Not sure which one to pick
Leave the focus blank and send the question. It reaches an engineer either way.
The Marking Process Capability Study
What the beam does to your substrate is the whole programme, and it is measurable in a week on the material itself. A photograph measures nothing.
What you receive
A numbered report against the part you sent. It records the substrate and surface condition as received, the source class the material dictates, the parameter set that produced the mark, the verification grade against the applicable symbol standard, the durability result against the conditions you stated, and the determined process envelope with the variables that move it. The marked part travels back with it, so the evidence sits on your desk rather than in a claim from us.
- Metals, coated and painted surfaces, timber and engineered board, polymers, packaging film and reusable plant assets are all characterised the same way
- The source is selected against the material rather than assumed, and the parameters are established on your material rather than quoted from a table
- Thresholds established in the study carry straight into the Marking Requirements Specification and the named test that closes each one
- Mention the part in the form and a return address comes back by reply
Read the engineering before you post it
The published operating envelope
Material matrix, source selection, symbol grading, and the measured speed model your part is compared against: a typical timber brand holds across roughly 40 to 120 m/min on a single galvo head.
How a programme is delivered
Feasibility before specification, acceptance criteria before build, and the twelve steps between them.
Integration patterns
The connection patterns the Control Layer uses to reach your ERP or MES, each with its authentication model and its documented failure edge.
How a capability study runs
Five steps from a padded envelope to a threshold written into an acceptance specification.
- Step 1
State what the mark has to carry
Mark content and symbology: a serial, a batch and date, a Data Matrix, a logo, a full asset plate. Then the read distance, the scanner or camera that has to read it, and the environment the mark survives. A code nobody can scan is the same as no code, so the reader is part of the specification from the first message.
- Step 2
Post the part in the condition the station sees it
Mill scale, powder coat, galvanising, machining oil, resin bleed, freezer frost. Send it as it arrives at the point in the line where the mark would land. A cleaned sample characterises a process nobody runs, and the difference shows up on install day rather than in the report.
- Step 3
Light Lane characterises the material
The source class the substrate dictates is specified and integrated, then a parameter sweep runs across power, frequency, pulse duration, speed and hatch strategy until the mark holds contrast and edge definition on that surface. Marks are graded against ISO/IEC 15415 for 2D symbols and ISO/IEC 15416 for linear bar codes rather than judged by eye, and the grade is reported per cell size and aperture.
- Step 4
The durability run
The conditions you name are the conditions the mark is put through: wash chemistry and cycle count, abrasion, salt exposure, UV, handling, heat. Grade is measured again at the end of the exposure rather than the minute the mark was made, which is what lets a requirement be written as grade C or better after 30 wash cycles and then tested against exactly that.
- Step 5
The report becomes the acceptance threshold
Numbers measured on your own material are written into the Marking Requirements Specification, mapped in the Requirements Traceability Matrix to the test that proves them, and closed at factory and site acceptance. Acceptance criteria written before the build are engineering. The study is where those numbers come from.
What to include with the part
Six lines in the form turn a sample into a study.
- Material and grade where you know it, and the surface condition it carries when it reaches the marking point.
- The mark content and symbology: serial, batch, date, Data Matrix, QR, logo, asset plate, or the full plate layout if one already exists.
- Read distance, reader type and who reads it: a fixed scanner on the line, a handheld on the yard, a phone camera in the field.
- The service environment the mark has to survive, with the numbers attached: wash chemistry and cycles, abrasion, marine exposure, UV hours, temperature range.
- Throughput: parts per hour, and the window the part spends in front of the head if it is marked while it moves.
- Two or three parts of the same substrate where you can spare them, so durability cycles run on one while another comes back marked.
- A return address, and the name of the person who receives the report.
Route the enquiry to the engineer who owns it
One form, four destinations. Naming which one you are in the first line removes a round trip.
| Enquiry | What to send with it | How it is handled |
|---|---|---|
| Capability study | The part, plus mark content, read distance, service environment and throughput | Mention the part in the form and a return address comes back by reply. The report and the marked part follow. |
| Software support | Your plan, Maker or Pro, the controller you are driving, and the job that produced the behaviour | Goes to the people who write the software. Controller paths, machine profiles and workflow questions are also documented in the docs. |
| Systems enquiry | What you make, volumes per shift, how the part presents at the marking point, and the ERP or MES instance that owns the job data | Goes to the engineer who would write your Functional and Interface Specification. Those four facts start the engineering conversation at depth. |
| Site scope | Line layout, shift pattern, current coding method and the substrate mix across the plant | Book directly rather than through the form. The visit covers part presentation, services, guarding and extraction, and the integration boundary. |
| Supplier approval | The prequalification portal your process uses and the document set it requires | Prequalification runs in parallel with technical evaluation. The assurance apparatus and the qualification pack are published in full. |
Questions engineers ask before they post a part
Which part should we send?
The one that gives the most trouble today. The awkward substrate, the coated surface nobody has marked cleanly, the crate that comes back off the yard illegible, the casting whose identity disappears the moment it leaves the nest. A study on the easy part proves the easy part.
How long does a study take?
Parameter work and grading run quickly once the part arrives. The variable is the durability run, because a wash cycle count or a UV exposure takes the time it takes. The report states the cycles run and the grade measured after them, so the number is defensible rather than optimistic.
What if the physics routes our job somewhere other than laser?
The report says so, in the same numbers. Substrate, required mark height, character density, throughput window and read requirement together determine the method, and where a small character date code on a flexible film is the actual requirement, we specify continuous inkjet and say so at the scope rather than at commissioning.
Does the report belong to us?
Yes. It is numbered, it carries your part identity, and it is written to be handed to a quality manager or attached to a tender document. Client programmes stay confidential, which is the same protection you receive. The engineering is public: speeds, material coverage, symbol grading and integration boundaries are published on this site in full.
We already know we want a line. Do we still send a part?
Yes, and it runs alongside the site scope rather than delaying it. The scope establishes presentation, services and the integration boundary. The study establishes the parameters and the grade. Both are needed before an acceptance specification can be written, and they run in parallel.
Who reads the form?
The engineering team. Every message is read by a person and answered by the person who would own the work, usually within a day or two.
Send us a part
Post the substrate that gives you the most trouble and receive a numbered report on it: parameter set, verification grade against the applicable standard, durability result against your stated conditions, and the marked part back in your hands. If hardware, integration or a production line is already in scope, book a site scope directly and run both in parallel.
Last updated August 21, 2026