Influence of Laser Marking Parameters on Color Generation in AISI 304 Stainless Steel

The study concerns the influence of some basic parameters (speed, raster step, scan overlap coefficient, and surface modification at different processing angles) on the process of color laser marking with a fiber laser on AISI 304 stainless steel samples. Different surface morphology was obtained for single-shot marking; double-shot marking at angles 0° and 90°; and triple-shot marking at angles 0°, 60°, and 120°. According to the created methodology, dependencies for surface roughness, resulting color, color difference, and chromatic distance from the parameters raster step and scanning speed were established. The resulting colors and color differences for different values of these parameters for the three resulting morphological surfaces were compared. Trends in color saturation changes were established for single-shot, double-shot, and triple-shot color marking, as well as for changes in technological parameters in the studied intervals.