Ringle Zooka stem question

Just curious, when did Ringle switch from decals of the logo on their Zooka stem to etching the logo into the metal???

ringle

must have been around 1997, when sun took over, but not sure.

funny thing:
I have zooka's with stickers, with ringlé etched in normal and with ringlé etched in italic letters...
Also have a zooka with stickers on the stem and etched logo on the face plate.
Strange history about putting their name on the parts.

Maybe elite504 can help?

Oh, I posted this question a while ago as well :
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9970&highlight=ringle+laser

Hi Guys, maybe a little earlier than '97, probably a couple of years earlier. 'Genuine' ringle kit used stickers initially, but it was labour intensive and the operators often stuck the stickers on at an angle, and had to re-apply them after removing the old sticker. It was all done by hand and labour intensive. When they got the laser marking machine, it was a matter of putting it in a fixture and hitting a button. There were good results with the moby. Intially all 'straight' lettering, slightly italic on some later ones. I have a few rejects that have been double-marked one side and that sort of thing. The downside with the laser was that you couldn't re-work it. If you stuffed it up, it was scrap. Sun did sell the zooka for a while, but it was all Ringlé Components old stock. Sun didn't support the zooka, or the moby for spares at all.
The cuper 8 and superbubba were initially stickered too, and later laser marked. The superduper8 and the superduper bubba were generally all laser marked. Generally it was the proto ones that weren't. The public didn't see stickered superdupers

hope this helps!