Mark the part. Pass the FAI. Cut the fixture. In-house.
Part numbers, serials, and 2D Data Matrix codes on stainless, titanium, and anodized aluminum, plus the FOD-controlled foam trays, fixtures, templates, and gaskets your shop floor runs on. One compact laser bench brings the marks your customers require, and the short-run fab work, back under your own roof, from your own files, the same day.
Most aerospace shops start with the Aurora 8-100W MOPA, starting at $11,000.
US support from coast to coast and over 1,000 five-star reviews on Trustpilot.
The mark your customer’s drawing calls out is the one step that is not on your bench.
When the requirement flows down, a drawing note that says identify per the spec, a scannable code on every part, a serial your first article has to verify, most shops farm the marking out. It is cheap per part, and that is the trap: a marking vendor’s multi-day turnaround sits in the middle of your delivery week, on every lot, forever. The improvised routes have scars too. Ink smears. Stamping is impact marking that many aerospace drawings restrict on fatigue-critical hardware. The bargain import galvo shows up with no enclosure, software nobody can run, and an OSHA question you do not want asked out loud. Meanwhile the fab work around the cell never stops: a foam tray for the tool-control audit, a fixture for the next first article, a gasket for the test stand, a template for the composite shop. Each one is a purchase order and days of waiting. A compact laser cell closes both gaps at once.
One bench puts the mark, the paperwork, and the wait back under your control.
Bring the marking and the fab work in-house and the math changes fast. You stop paying a vendor’s per-part markup, you quote shorter lead times because the mark is no longer someone else’s queue, and you keep the margin that used to leave the building on every lot. It also lets you say yes to work you used to turn down, the serialized job, the quick-turn fixture, the tool-control tray, because the capability now lives on your own floor. For a lot of shops this one machine is the difference between quoting a job and winning it.
Non-contact marks your drawings allow
A laser marks without touching the part. No impact, no deformation, and where the drawing allows it, an annealed mark that removes no material. Deep, permanent part numbers, serials, and codes on stainless, titanium, aluminum, and nickel alloys, the same on every part.
Traceability your FAI can verify
Camera and autofocus place the same mark in the same spot from your own files, so the marking callout on your ballooned drawing verifies like any other characteristic. When the audit comes, you scan your own codes and pull your own records instead of chasing a vendor’s.
The fab work around the cell, same day
The CO2 side cuts what the floor waits on: FOD-accountable foam tool trays, acrylic and laminate fixtures and templates, Mylar shims, gasket sheet, and foam shipping inserts. A rev is a file edit and a cut, not a purchase order and a week.
If it crosses your bench, one of these lasers most likely handles it.
Stainless steel and titanium are the two metals an aerospace shop marks most, machined parts, fittings, and plates on one side, the signature airframe alloy on the other. The lineup covers both, plus the fab side.
Not sure how your alloy, your anodize, or your foam will take the mark or the cut? That is what the free sample is for. Send a few pieces of your real material, blanks, offcuts, or drops, and we will run them and tell you straight whether it is a good fit.
A few hard rules we will not bend, because in this trade the dangerous materials are the hardware.
Heated cadmium and chromate coatings put genuinely dangerous fume in the air, PVC and vinyl release hydrogen chloride, and ABS releases hydrogen cyanide. Carbon fiber and fiberglass char and gas out instead of cutting clean, so our composite lane is the tooling around them, templates, fixtures, and foam in laser-safe materials. If you cannot name the material and the plating, the answer is no until you can. We will always tell you the truth about a material instead of selling you a result we cannot stand behind.
Everything we know about marking aerospace parts in-house, in one PDF.
Flow-down in plain English, the materials worth taking and the ones to refuse, and how fiber, MOPA, UV and CO2 actually divide the work.
No cost, and no sales call required to read it.
One machine marks the part and makes the tooling around it.
The same bench that puts a verifiable code on every part also builds the things your shop runs on: tool-control trays, fixtures, templates, shims, gaskets, and shipping inserts, cut today instead of ordered this week.
Four series, one honest recommendation.
Aerospace work spans marking metal and cutting the fab tooling around it. Here is the whole lineup, with the series we point most aerospace shops to called out first. We will tell you straight which one your work actually needs.
Aurora
The metal-marking machine. Deep, permanent serial numbers, part numbers, and 2D Data Matrix codes on stainless, titanium, and aluminum, placed by camera so every part matches and every code scans. This is the one that puts your required marks in-house.
Nova Plus
The CO2 machine for everything around the part: the foam trays, fixtures, templates, shims, and gaskets your floor waits on. Cut them the same day from your own files instead of ordering them out and waiting a week.
Bolt
The engraving specialist. Fast, high-detail marking on a compact bed, a strong fit when your work is mostly small tags, plates, and nameplates and you care more about speed and fine detail than a large cutting area.
Titan
The production step-up. A 220v machine on the premium tube with the fastest engraving in the lineup, built to run hard all day for when your volume outgrows the Nova Plus and you need more speed.
All four run on a standard 110v outlet except the Titan, which is the 220v production step-up. Every machine ships nationwide on a liftgate truck with the LightBurn software included (licensed for two computers, the computer is yours), one free hour of remote training, US support from coast to coast, and a 2 year machine warranty. For surface marks on polymer housings and panels, the Aurora 8-5W UV is the plastics tool, and the Thunder Air 700 handles fume in-house with no outside duct. Not sure which your work needs? Request a free sample and we will tell you straight.
Straight prices, honest advice, and a mark you can stand behind.
We publish our prices
You have already noticed the industrial marking tier will not tell you what anything costs until a rep has your number. Our prices are on the page. What you see is what the machine costs, and the sample that proves it fits is free.
We tell you which tool your job needs
Sometimes that is the cheaper machine. Sometimes it is not a laser at all: electro-etch is a legitimate low-stress incumbent, and a mark that must survive heavy post-processing is sometimes a dot-peen job, and we will say so. A vendor who only ever recommends his own machine is not advising you.
A mark your first article can stand behind
Permanent, repeatable marks placed by camera from your own files, so the marking callout verifies on your first article like any other characteristic, and your traceability records are yours, not a vendor’s. Backed by US support from coast to coast and a 2 year machine warranty.
You are not just buying a laser. You are buying the people behind it.
US support, coast to coast, from people who actually run these machines.
When you bet a production step on a machine, the real question is not just whether it marks clean. It is who is actually in your corner when something goes sideways at 2pm on a Thursday with a shipment on the line. With Thunder Laser that is a real US-based team, coast to coast, that knows these machines inside out, not an overseas ticket queue and not a reseller who has never run one.
More than a thousand owners have said exactly that in five-star reviews. You start with one free hour of remote training, every machine carries a 2 year warranty, and you get straight answers, including when the answer is no. Buy the machine, and you are buying the shop that stands behind it.
See it marked on your own material. Free.
No spec sheet tells you how your alloy, your anodize, or your foam takes the mark or the cut. So we will just show you. This is a free sample to show what the machine can do, its quality and its detail. It is not a production run, and we do not take in finished goods or fill orders.
Tell us your material
On the short form, tell us your material and the simple mark or cut you want to see, within reason, so we can confirm it is a good fit before we run it.
Mail us a few pieces
Send a few pieces of your actual material to our shop. We will send the address. Blanks, offcuts, drops, or raw stock, a piece of your material, not a finished part.
We run it and send it back
You get your sample back with the exact settings we used, so you can verify it against your own spec on your own equipment. No cost, no pressure.
Send a few pieces, not just one. We do not know the perfect settings for every alloy, anodize, and coating on sight, so a few pieces give us room to dial it in and show the best the machine can really do.
Only send material you are okay with us using up. Samples are for testing, so treat anything you send as something we may consume getting the settings right. Send raw, nameable material, never plated or finished parts.
Aerospace questions, answered straight.
Will the mark hold up, and will my codes verify?
My drawing restricts marking on fatigue-critical areas. Can a laser still do the job?
What about AS9100, AS9102, and my customer’s flow-down?
Will you run my plated fasteners or cut my composite panels?
We do defense work under MIL-STD-130. Is this the right page?
What power and space do I need, and can I finance it?
Send us your material. We will mark it free.
Fill out the short form and a real person from our team follows up. No pressure, no spam, just a clean mark on your own material and straight answers. Blanks, offcuts, and raw stock only, never plated or finished parts.
Prefer to talk it through first? Schedule a sales call.
Not ready to send a sample? Take the guide instead.
Download the guide