FEATURE: CO2
LASERS
THE WORKHORSE OF LASER PROCESSING
Greg Blackman on where CO₂ lasers excel in materials processing
In the world of laser processing, it’s the fibre laser that grabs the headlines. The laser processing subcontractor, ES Precision, is about to buy its eighth laser system, a high-power fibre laser that will extend the firm’s metal cutting capabilities, among other uses (more on page 30). As a specialist in laser marking, however,
ES Precision has to work with various different materials, and for that it requires different lasers. The firm runs five different types overall: fibre, CO2, vanadate, YAG and frequency tripled vanadate (a UV laser). Two of its seven – soon to be eight – galvo laser workstations are CO2 machines. Andrew May, a director at ES Precision, highlighted the flexibility of its CO2 lasers.
One job its 200W CO2 laser machine is used for is to mark, cut and perforate Beiersdorf’s Tesa labels, the kind used for automotive vehicle identification number (VIN) labels. The marks are made by ablating the top layer of the tape, revealing the layer beneath in a different colour. The marks are high resolution, meaning a lot of
Trotec’s GSL1400 digital laser label converting machine
data can be placed on a small label; they are tamper evident, in that, once placed, the label cures in air in 12 hours and the only way to remove it is to destroy it; and they’re weather and UV resistant, so suitable for outdoor use. The same laser machine also cuts the label – as far as the backing layer, akin to kiss-cutting in conventional label production, but it’s a digital process so changing the shape of the cuts is easy to do. It also perforates the web, both the label and backing material, so that sets of labels can be torn off. The three discrete processes all happen on a reel-to-reel spooling workstation. ‘The world of CO2 lasers continues to be dynamic,’ May said. ‘Fibre lasers haven’t really impacted the low-power CO2 laser
“CO₂ lasers haven’t had to evolve… they’ve still got a very healthy market and they’re the right tool for the job”
Beiersdorf’s Tesa labels marked by CO2 laser 8 LASER SYSTEMS EUROPE AUTUMN 2021 @LASERSYSTEMSMAG |
WWW.LASERSYSTEMSEUROPE.COM @researchinfo |
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Beiersdorf and ES Precision
Trotec
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