Raval, a manufacturer of fuel tank venting systems for the automotive industry, is using Foba’s CO2 lasers to generate alphanumeric codes that guarantee reliable identification and traceability of the systems’ components at any point in their lifetime.
Headquartered in Israel and with manufacturing sites in the USA, China and Europe, Raval now has more than 20 Foba CO2 laser-marking systems in operation, marking traceability codes on the vent valves used in the fuel tank systems.
The permanent machine-readable codes are used to track where and by whom the fuel tank venting components and valves have been manufactured, processed, stored or shipped. Should any defects be identified or problems regarding the fuel venting systems arise, the history of any part will be readily available to identify at which point of the production process the defect or error occurred.
The CO2 laser-marking systems are able to provide sub one-second marking times in order to match the speed of production lines. The lasers also have to ensure that the process is economical, as OEMs are often unwilling to pay for traceability marks on their components.
Raval’s manufacturing site in Luxemburg has six Foba Alltec CO2 laser markers. The compact design of the Alltec LC300 system means that the lasers and beam delivery units were easily integrated within the Raval’s existing production lines, and provided all the required interfaces to ensure smooth data exchange (RS232, TCP/ IP).
Foba also offers HELP (Holistic Enhanced Laser Process), a three-stage closed-loop marking process that ensures process reliability before and after laser marking. Parts are validated prior to marking, and, with the combination of a TTL (Through-The-Lens) vision system and IMP (Intelligent Mark Positioning), only the correct mark will be applied in the correct position and on the correct part.