Plate or laser for a case nameplate?

Answer: Follow the revision history. One or more changes in three years calls for a 0.5 mm riveted plate at 2.2 per case; a code frozen for a decade above ten thousand units justifies 30 W engraving at 0.6.

Do two rivet holes break the seal?

Answer: They create two paths, and both are closable. A φ3.4 mm hole with a φ6 mm nitrile washer at 25% compression holds 0.3 kPa with no bubble over 30 s in a soap test.

Can an adhesive plate go into a cold store?

Answer: Not below −10 ℃. Peel falls from 12 N/cm to 4 N/cm after 48 h at −20 ℃; primer at 38 mN/m helps but adds 0.4 per case.

How small can the laser write?

Answer: 2 mm character height, 0.15 mm stroke, 0.1 mm depth on a 30 W source. At 1.5 mm the stroke drops to 0.1 mm and a six-digit code needs 18 mm of width to stay readable.

Can a wrong plate be corrected?

Answer: Yes. Two rivets out, old holes plugged with colour-matched PP plugs, the new plate rotated 15° and re-riveted, ten minutes per case. Engraving has no equivalent.

Case Nameplate: Aluminium Plate vs Laser Engraving

Quick answer: A case nameplate is either a 0.5 mm aluminium plate riveted at two points or a 0.1 mm laser engraving, and only the plate can be swapped when the model code changes.

Why two carriers exist
Riveted plate: thickness, points, pitch
Adhesive plate at low temperature
Laser depth and minimum character height
Salt spray, abrasion and the price gap
FAQ

1. Why two carriers exist

A run of 800 cases changed its model suffix from A to B before shipment. The 420 engraved units had 0.1 mm cut into the wall already, and sanding that back drops local thickness from 3 mm to 2.9 mm, so the whole lot went to scrap. The 380 riveted units came back the same afternoon: two rivets out, new plate on, ten minutes each. The case nameplate carrier chosen at drawing stage decides who pays.

An aluminium plate is a separate part, 0.5 mm of 6061 sheet fixed by two rivets or adhesive; engraving is a surface state burned 0.1 mm deep by a 30 W fibre source.

Item	Riveted 0.5 mm plate	30 W laser engraving
Unit price	1.8	0.6
Assembly	2 rivets, 60 mm pitch	no added part
Model change	10 min per case	irreversible, lot scrapped
Water path	rivet holes and adhesive	bottom of the cut
Character wear	plate replaced whole	lives with the shell

The row buyers skip is model change. Suffixes, certification numbers and part codes move once or twice in three years. On a 1000-unit lot, one engraving change throws away 68,000 in product; plates cost 1800 plus 400 in labour.

2. Riveted plate: thickness, points, pitch

0.5 mm is the floor for plate thickness. Thinner sheet curls at the corners, cutting hands and lifting paint off the wall. Going to 0.8 mm fails the other way: the sheet will not follow the shell curvature, so the middle arches 0.3 mm and water walks into the gap.

Two rivets, 60 mm apart, φ3.2 mm blind aluminium rivets into φ3.4 mm holes. Pull the pitch under 40 mm and the plate between the points never seats; push it past 80 mm and a fingernail lifts the middle by 2 mm, which also breaks the seal.

Case nameplate not yet fitted on white cases stacked upright on a wooden bench, moulded top handle and two latches, parts bins behind

The rivet hole is the one weak path in this design. A 0.1 mm clearance around each shank lets water creep into the wall section, so every rivet sits on a φ6 mm nitrile washer, 1 mm thick, compressed to 25%. Final check is not a full immersion: soap solution around the holes, 0.3 kPa from inside, no bubble within 30 s. Set both rivets before pulling tight, since most leak complaints start with riveting first and reading the wall gap later.

3. Adhesive plate at low temperature

An adhesive plate removes two holes and moves the whole risk into the glue line. The sound build is 0.8 mm acrylic foam tape at 12 N/cm peel on polypropylene, enough for a 5 kg vertical pull at room temperature.

Cold is where it ends. After 48 h at −20 ℃ the same tape reads 4 N/cm, a third of its room-temperature grip, and a 45 N sideways push starts the edge lifting. Winter container loading and unheated air freight both cross that line.

Surface energy explains it. Bare polypropylene sits at 29 mN/m, where the tape holds by weak dispersion forces that fade as chains stiffen. Flame or primer lifts it to 38 mN/m and brings −20 ℃ peel back to 7 N/cm, at 0.4 per case.

The rule is short: any destination below −10 ℃ gets rivets. Above −10 ℃, indoors, the tape saves two holes and one leak path. Corners under R10 always need rivets, since tape cannot follow that curvature at any temperature.

4. Laser depth and minimum character height

A 30 W fibre laser at 1064 nm, run at 800 mm/s for two passes, cuts 0.1 mm into polypropylene. Depth is a narrow window: under 0.05 mm the marking polishes away within two summers of UV, and past 0.2 mm the groove silts until characters vanish.

Case nameplate face of a light grey case under side light, fine grain texture, folded top handle and two front latches, ribbed corners on dark

Minimum character height is 2 mm with a 0.15 mm stroke. At 1.5 mm the stroke falls to 0.1 mm, which is twice the 0.05 mm spot, and the seam between two passes breaks the stroke into dashes. Letter spacing needs 0.4 mm, otherwise a six-digit code prints as one dark block.

Polypropylene cuts to a pale grey read through roughness; ABS carbonises at the edge and shifts ΔE 3.4, like an oil smear. ABS needs 0.02 mm of white primer before marking and a clear coat after, which lifts 0.6 to 1.1 per case.

Irreversibility is the hard constraint. One wrong character leaves no material to rework: taking off 0.1 mm drops the wall from 3 mm to 2.9 mm. Programmes still editing numbering rules should hold the laser step until the code freezes.

5. Salt spray, abrasion and the price gap

Neutral salt spray for 96 h, 5% sodium chloride at 35 ℃. The anodised plate at 15 μm comes out clean after a rinse, characters crisp, no white rust; the engraved sample shows a 0.05 mm pale fringe where filler has been eaten.

Rivets fail first on the plate design. Zinc-plated blind rivets show grade 3 white rust after 96 h, a grey ring around each head. Stainless rivets remove it but push 1.8 to 2.3 per case and need an insulating washer against galvanic coupling.

Abrasion runs 500 strokes of an alcohol swab at 1 kg. The engraved sample loses height from 0.1 mm to 0.08 mm and stays legible; the adhesive plate lifts at a corner around stroke 260 and stands 1.5 mm proud at 500. The riveted plate only drops gloss from 60 GU to 45 GU.

The price gap needs change frequency attached. Plates at 1.8 against engraving at 0.6 differ by 1200 on 1000 units, but two marking changes in three years at 30% of stock scrapped turn that into 40,800 for engraving against 3960 for plates. Small lots favour the plate; a frozen code with ten-thousand-unit runs is the only place the 1.2 saving is real.

Check	Riveted plate	Laser engraving	Verdict
96 h salt spray	no rust, rivets grade 3	0.05 mm pale fringe	both legible
500 abrasion strokes	gloss −15 GU	height −0.02 mm	both legible
48 h at −20 ℃	no change	no glue to fail	adhesive fails
Change cost per case	2.2	68	plate wins

Conclusion

The case nameplate question reduces to one test: will the marking change? If it will, buy the 0.5 mm plate and two rivets, and treat the 1.2 premium as insurance against a scrapped lot. If it will not, engrave 0.1 mm deep and keep the saving. Freeze the numbering rule first, choose the carrier second, argue price last; projects that invert the order pay twice, because one revision costs more than three years of plates.

Dimension	Riveted plate	Laser engraving
Durability	clean after 96 h salt spray	lives with the shell, wear permanent
Serviceability	10 min swap, holes pluggable	no repair, scrap only
Failure mode	rivet seepage, cold peel	groove silting, edge charring
Volume fit	from 300 units, frequent revisions	above 1000 units, stable code

This article discusses container-side specifications and design implications only, and does not cover any handling, loading or use of the contents.