How your aluminium profiles can become a marketing opportunity

Many aluminium profiles are located in places where everyone sees them every day. Think of doors, window frames, balustrades or installations in public buildings. Yet hardly anyone knows who made them. As a manufacturer, you are missing an opportunity. A permanent marking on your profile turns every product into a business card and also offers practical benefits for you and your customer.

Why manufacturers mark their profiles

Brand awareness beyond the industry

Within your own industry, people may have known you for years. Outside it, your product is often anonymous. Anyone who later needs the same product does not know where to go. By consistently applying your logo to every profile, your name and your product become linked over time.

Traceability and easy reordering

A marking can do more than just show a logo. With a QR code or serial number, you record exactly which product it is. This offers several benefits:

• Fast reordering, because in the event of damage a customer scans the code and immediately sees which product needs to be replaced.
• Traceability, because you can look up when and in which batch a product was made.
• Fewer errors, because there is no longer any ambiguity about dimensions or design.

In this way, a brand mark also becomes a service for the end user.

Laser, ink or sticker

The limitations of stickers and ink

Many manufacturers start with a sticker or an ink print. That is simple, but not permanent. Stickers come loose or are removed, and ink can wear or fade under the influence of light and use.

Moreover, a brightly coloured sticker does not always suit the product or its surroundings. A conspicuous maintenance sticker on a beautiful, historic door is functional, but detracts from the whole.

Why laser is permanent

With laser marking, material is actually removed from the surface. The marking is therefore in the aluminium itself and is indelible. In addition, laser is extremely precise.

A QR code of approximately 15 by 15 millimetres contains all the necessary information. The marking is easy to read, but does not stand out unnecessarily. The result looks neat and suits a quality product.

Marking without extra manual work

Manual marking quickly reaches its limits

If you want to take marking seriously, manual work quickly runs into limits. Each profile has to be picked up separately, the correct code has to be selected and there is always a risk of mistakes. With larger quantities, this becomes a considerable investment of time.

An automated marking system

A laser marking system can work largely independently. A commonly used set-up looks like this: the operator scans the profile with a barcode reader and places it on an automatic infeed magazine.

From that moment on, everything happens automatically. The profile is fed past the laser, the correct marking is applied and the product is discharged automatically.

The control system retrieves the marking data directly from a file prepared by the customer. At Van Dulst, this is done with MPS-control, which retrieves the information and sends it to the laser source. This means the operator does not have to enter anything manually.

Such a system can usually easily keep pace with the processing machine upstream, so marking does not cause any additional delay in your process.

What to look for when choosing

Start with the question of what you want to achieve with the marking. If it is mainly about branding, the location and appearance of the logo are important. If traceability is the priority, the system must be able to link to your own data.

Also look at the quantities you process and at how the system fits into your existing production process. The better the marking is integrated into your process, the less you have to worry about it in day-to-day practice.

Would you like to turn your aluminium profiles into a marketing opportunity? Contact Van Dulst to discuss the possibilities.