A Comparison of Industrial Laser Marking Software

We put five mainstream industrial-grade laser marking software packages to the test, comparing their stability, compatibility, and core functionality.The data showed significant differences in compatibility with older equipment and in processing large batches of jobs. Some products stood out for their graphic processing precision, while others had problems with driver compatibility.When selecting an ERP system, it is suggested that you combine the configuration of your existing equipment with your production needs. Traditional manufacturing enterprises that place greater emphasis on stability should first consider well-established software brands that have a complete driver library. Newer industries that require flexible custom functions can try out new brands.

Why is it necessary to pay attention to the performance of laser engraving software?

The hardware of a laser engraver is important, but the software is the "brain" that actually runs the machine.While working in the workshop, we often ran into problems with software freezing and crashing, and with overly complex parameter settings.In particular, in industrial applications such as marking automobile parts or etching medical instruments, a delay of even 0.1 second could affect the efficiency of a production line.

Test background and equipment selection.

This time around, the five most popular software packages were brought in: EZCAD3 by Golden Orange, HANS-MARK by Han's Laser, RayMark Pro, LaserSuite by Laser Doctor, and SmartLaser by Sharp Mark.The testing platform comprises 20 industrial computers with different configurations, from the old i5-6500 to the latest generation i7.

Three key indicators.

Testing the stability of the system's operation.

During 48 hours of high-intensity testing, EZCAD3 unexpectedly shut down twice, and HANS-MARK lost its driver three times.However, the CPU utilization rate is about 15 % higher than other products.

A test of compatibility.

When the RayMark Pro is fitted with galvanometers and lasers from different manufacturers, the advantages of its driver library come to the fore.But the software that comes with the Light-Box is a little lacking in third-party plug-ins, and we couldn't get it to work with the Mitsubishi PLC we were testing with. In the end, the manufacturer had to send us a remote patch.

The depth of the experience of practical functions.

Who's the best at batch processing?

When handling the job of automatically generating 3000+ serial numbers, the template function of HANS-MARK did in fact save a lot of work, but it would often report errors when it encountered special characters.The dynamic variables function is very interesting. It supports directly calling data from an Excel spreadsheet, which should be very useful for friends who do medical device traceability codes.

Graphic flexibility.

The RayMark Pro's vector graphics processing is a real standout.But its interface isn't very user-friendly for beginners. The menu levels are pretty deeply buried, and when we first started out, our technicians almost wore out the 'undo' key.