Read on to find out how lasers can serve effectively as primary and complementary finishing systems and which configuration to select for the materials you use.
Industrial printing has many applications in store for laser-based cutting equipment. These systems are engineered to supply fine, high-speed finishing for many types of rigid materials. This article presents an update on the capabilities of modern laser technology as it relates to processing functional graphics and media used in specialty printing.
What laser systems can do
Lasers are an alternative to mechanical cutters that use blades or bits. They can cut a variety of materials in a single pass, leave highly polished edges at the end of the cutting cycle, and enable more graphics to be ganged up—thereby providing up to 40% more saleable product from each piece of substrate (Figure 1). A 150-w laser system can acrylic up to 0.625 in. thick, and a 400-w laser can produce perpendicular, polished edges on 1-in.-thick acrylic. Major plastics companies use such systems to provide custom etched-and-cut acrylic wall decorations to their customers.
Lasers can also kiss-cut pressure-sensitive vinyl, static-cling polypropylene, and a host of other common materials without skipping. Although many screen and digital printers routinely use high-end knife cutters for kiss-cutting and through-cutting, ease of pulling out the kiss-cut part is critical in several applications. The quality of cut is paramount, particularly when dealing with performance decals and other adhesive-backed graphics. Figure 2 illustrates a typical kiss-cut job done on a large-format laser system with a vision capability to handle print-to-cut accuracy.
Lasers can cut corrugated plastics with precise edges, and they support etching and 3D engraving with fine detail. They can etch glass and acrylic panels/dividers (Figure 3), and typical etch times for a 3 x 5-ft panel of glass is two hours. Chemical etching or sandblasting can be messy and time consuming, and these methods also may fail to reproduce extremely fine details in the finished product.
Lasers can provide full compatibility with camera-based vision systems for cut-to-print accuracy, even with lamination. Through integration with vision technology—even on smaller, fully enclosed, gantry-based laser systems—operators can achieve quiet operation with superb cutting of both laminated prints and digitally printed graphics applied to acrylic and other rigid materials.
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