Laser Marking on a Spherical Surface - Mass Production

[Sean Stone]

This is my first post after having browsed through a multitude of threads related to the latest technology available for laser cutting, engraving, marking, ablation, etc.

I am glad to have found this forum and am appreciative of the wealth of knowledge available here!

Over the past couple of years I have been developing methods to manufacture an invention of a new board game. What makes this game especially difficult to mass produce cheaply (or so it seems) is that it is played on a sphere.

The main geometry/appearance of the game includes:

• Holes at precise locations oriented normal to the sphere’s surface
• Lines on several axis that intersect the holes as great circles (need 2 colors-preferable or shades of lines)
• Overall symmetric & quality appearance can’t be appreciably diminished for cost savings
• ~100mm in diameter
• Open to plastic or metal material

I have developed several designs for injection or blow molded parts to construct the sphere with the holes – quite difficult to avoid undercuts given the geometry

Options for lines:

• 2^nd / 3^rd overmold to produce 2 different colored lines
• Stickers
• Paint
• Laser marking

Which leads me to questions I have in the context of this forum…

Are there any commercially available services that support high volume laser marking which could produce two colors/shades and mark the entire surface of a sphere (or at least a hemisphere)? Would have to be ~$5 or less per sphere to be considered viable

I think that only a 5-axis machine can perform this operation...please correct me if I’m wrong

Are there any economical plastics that will produce 2 different colors when marked with the right setup?

Are there systems that have MOPA/YAG lasers to color mark stainless steel in addition to 5-axis control?

I’m also wondering if it’s possible that laser cutting holes in spheres (non-unique from a supplier) in the same or secondary operation could be comparable in cost to blow molding the sphere/holes combo

Any advice, further reading, contacts or know how is much appreciated!

Best,

Sean

[Kev Williams]

Have you looked in to 'hydro-dipping'/'hydrographics'? That might be a way to get the artwork on the sphere- don't know much about it to be honest, but it's pretty cool...
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[Gary Hair]

I think that's a great idea but aligning one hemisphere to the other may not be possible due to the way the process works. I had a customer about 5 years ago that wanted lacrosse shafts logoed and they wanted specific registration, turned out not to be possible with hydrodipping but worked great with cylindrical shrink tube that was pre-printed with their graphics.

[Sean Stone]

This had occurred to me, but requires the custom graphic to be precisely placed across the entire surface of the sphere/hemisphere with no warping; the center of the graphic would need to be positioned within ~5 thousands radius from the center of the hemisphere and radially +/- ~0.5deg with respect to holes on the sphere (these are guesses at what will be visually appealing) This is something that traditional hyrodipping does not cater to.

Definitely possible though, see

https://formlabs.com/blog/full-color...hydrographics/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeWvYP5AHqI

Doubtful that the setup I'd need is readily available for high volume. I don't want to start my own manufacturing line - would like to outsource everything

[Bill George]

Kind of sounds like you need a process or production engineer for advice on manufacturing your product.

[Scott Shepherd]

Hydrodipping goes for about $1 per square inch.