"Do you expect me to talk?" gasps 007.
"No, Mr Bond," crows Goldfinger. "I expect you to die."
Now of course lasers have actually come of age. And thankfully they’re not being deployed quite as the fevered imaginations of 1960s film producers thought they might. Rather they’ve become part of everyday life, found in DVD players, scanners at supermarket checkouts and of course in the ubiquitous desktop laser printer.
And they have also become very much part of everyday life in print rooms, in digital printers, CTP devices and, most excitingly for some, as post-press cutters.
Laser developments are generating particular excitement here both because this has been a particularly fast-moving area of innovation of late, but also because until relatively recently their use here seemed as fantastical as their deployment by a James Bond super-villain.
Cutting costs
Richard Dyson, director at Huntingdon-based Trilogy Lasercraft, recalls that at one time the potential for laser cutting was severely restricted. There was only one company supplying the equipment and the lasers were "an astronomical price".
"It was perceived as expensive and difficult and never really penetrated the marketplace," he says.
Over recent years, though, things have changed enormously in print’s favour. A far wider range of laser-cutting equipment is available (see boxout) and Dyson reports that it’s now possible to buy low-end systems for less than £10,000. "That is inspiring people to experiment. You have design teams producing small volumes on their own kit, and they then approach us when they are looking to produce in volumes."
Hence, Trilogy Lasercraft has four industrial laser cutting machines working "flat out" 16 hours a day cutting a range of items including paper, retail graphics, perspex and MDF as well as awards and trophies.
One of Trilogy’s clients is the one person who has probably done most to popularise laser cutting in the eyes of the general public. He is the artist Rob Ryan, who creates incredibly intricate handmade paper cuts. His designs feature on a range of Roger la Borde greetings cards and are also available as limited edition, signed reproductions. It’s fair to say that without the high level of precision possible using lasers, it would not be possible to replicate Ryan’s work.
Now there is a wider range of competitively priced kit, then, firms such as Trilogy can finally capitalise on the numerous potential advantages of laser cutting over traditional methods. They can cash in on the fact that no dies or tooling are required, short runs are economically viable, and, particularly in the case of integrated systems, one operator can run the whole line. Lead times are also reduced and it’s possible to create highly customised products.
And one key drawback that used to be a real issue for many, has apparently been all but eliminated. With earlier, slower laser devices there would be obvious singeing on the underside of the cut piece, particularly with paper. In some cases this could be disguised through the use of coloured stocks, but for some customers and applications the burning on the backside of the sheet was simply unacceptable.
"Singeing used to be an issue, but because the new cutters are so quick there is much less burn – we can cut white paper now," says Colin Metson, managing director at decorative cutting specialist Papershapers.
This same absence of singeing, smoky edges or indeed splintering is cited by Zünd partner Eurolaser in tests it carried out specifically using lasers to shape-cut 3mm-thick printed acrylic sheets.
"There is no need for polishing or post-processing the cut edge as the laser automatically achieves the desired smooth cut edge in one pass," says the firm.
So just how wide, currently, is laser cutting’s reach? With the technology having made significant inroads into label, carton and wide-format printing, it would seem pretty wide.
There was plenty of evidence of lasers already having a major impact on label production at the recent Labelexpo. Visitors were mesmerised by the dancing laser lights of the integrated laser on EFI’s Jetrion inkjet label press, for instance. The firm first fitted laser cutting on the Jetrion in 2011 after spotting the potential to create an entirely digital process from print to finished label.
"When seeing how people were using our earlier 4000 and 4830 printers, without integrated finishing, the team realised how an integrated digital finishing operation could deliver another level of efficiency for our customers," explains Steve Billow, vice-president and chief technology officer for inkjet solutions at EFI.
"In the end, adding digital finishing was a natural outgrowth of our efforts to transition this printing market to digital."
Other suppliers are also integrating laser finishing in their label presses. Durst showed a Tau 330 press with Spartanics laser cutting system at Labelexpo, and Xeikon has recently confirmed the first installation of its 50cm-wide 3050 press with inline laser cutting at a Mexican customer.
Earlier this year Hunkeler showed off its progress with its 105m/min HL6 laser cutting system, appropriately described as "like something out of a James Bond film," by Robin Brown at UK distributor Friedheim International.
Papershapers’ Metson can certainly attest to lasers making serious waves in the finishing arena. Not only is the firm using the technology to produce shaped pieces for design and print clients. The firm has also discovered that a growth area is the kiss-cutting of printed sheets of labels whereby the laser will just cut the top layer of the label substrate.
A recent high-profile product launch with the potential to have a transformational impact on carton production also would not be feasible without laser power.
The Highcon Euclid digital cutting and creasing system uses three 400W CO2 lasers to cut carton shapes without the need for dies. It uses a separate resin technology to create the creasing matrices. The Euclid is the missing piece in the jigsaw of creating an end-to-end digital solution for carton printing, and the first Highcon machine in the UK has just been installed at Glossop Cartons, in Derbyshire.
"We use a specialist scanner and our own optics to achieve the speed and quality needed," explains Highcon vice-president of sales and business development Chris Baker.
"Doing the same thing in a short run is one aspect of what’s possible, but what’s actually happening is adding real value to the process – customers are using the machine to do added-value jobs that couldn’t be done conventionally," he notes.
Another advantage of laser cutting cited by both Papershapers’ Metson and Dyson at Trilogy Lasercraft, is the ability to cut designs into the covers of finished casebound books. However, Metson’s example of the most unusual job tackled takes some beating. "The weirdest thing we’ve done is a single engraved banana for a photo-shoot," he reports.
Feather cut
Then there’s the major impact lasers are having on wide-format printing. Alex White, managing director at UK cutting system manufacturer Blackman & White, cites an example of an increasingly popular wide-format print product that can be seen at almost every petrol station – feather flags.
"The use of soft signage is growing for all sorts of reasons, including environmental reasons and the fact that it looks nicer," says White. "But the technology used for cutting rigid materials isn’t very good for fabrics. A hot knife is slow, not very accurate and you can’t take into account distortion. Whereas a laser can cut a flag in about seven or eight seconds, and gives a sealed edge that doesn’t need overlocking."
Blackman & White makes a range of cutting equipment, including laser cutters that combine technologies, such as its £100,000 MasterCut Versa-Tech system that includes a 100W CO2 laser as well as router, knife and wheel cutting allowing users to cut everything from fabric to Dibond on the same device.
When it comes to laser technology, then, for many the future, or rather something very futuristic feeling, has very much arrived. But excitingly, there are predictions of profound enhancements yet to come.
Highcon’s Baker, who is something of an expert in the uses of lasers in all sorts of applications, predicts that lasers will become more commonplace in the printing industry in general and print finishing in particular.
EFI’s Billow even goes so far as to liken the rapid rate of developments in laser cutting to another high-profile area of print: "Laser cutting technology is advancing at a rate similar to inkjet printing and these faster, more precise lasers are able to keep up with our new print engines like the 4950LX."
So laser innovation shows no sign of slowing, and next months’ Dscoop Grand Prix event in Rome will mark something of a first in the world of laser cutting, with the debut of a new device invented by printer Jörg Scheffler of Themediahouse in Germany. After a four-year development process he’s launching his Motioncutter onto the market with a price tag of €194,500 (£164,141) and the promise of being able to personalise, cut, perforate and engrave.
So while Goldfinger’s plans for world domination were stymied, one thing he was right about was the powerful potential of lasers. In print this specialist form of light is turning out to be worth more than its weight in gold.
LASER CUTTING KIT CONTACTS
Blackman & White www.blackmanandwhite.com
CadCam Technology www.cct-uk.com
CTR www.ctrlasers.co.uk
Eurolaser www.eurolaser.com
HPC Laser www.hpclaser.co.uk
Motioncutter www.motioncutter.com
Sei Laser www.seilaser.eu
Spartanics www.spartanics.com
Trotec www.troteclaser.com
