How to match today's laser cutting technology to application requirements

Laser cutting, a.k.a. digital die cutting, uses high-powered lasers to vaporize materials in the lasers' beam path. The powering on and off of the laser beam and the way in which the beam path is directed towards the substrate effects the specific cuts that the artwork requires. Because cut away parts are vaporized the hand labor or complicated extraction methods otherwise needed for small part scrap removal is eliminated.

These basic facts about laser cutting are as true today as they were when laser cutting systems were first put to practical industrial uses in the '80s. However, recent advances in laser cutting technology, and especially those that relate to the sophistication of the software engineering underlying laser cutting controls, have created dramatic improvements in the type of outputs that can be expected from laser cutters.

Today’s lower cost laser cutting systems made from less expensive components have far superior capabilities to the expensive systems that were designed and engineered only a few years ago. At the top end, state-of-art laser cutting systems are able to consistently cut far more intricate designs in a wider range of substrates and with tighter tolerances than ever before.