From Die-Cutting to Digital Packaging
Cardboard and corrugated board are already among the most widely used materials for sustainable packaging.
They are recyclable, familiar to consumers and widely adopted in e-commerce, food packaging, displays, protective packaging and customized boxes.
But today, the real challenge is no longer only the material.
It is the production process.
Packaging manufacturers are increasingly asked to manage shorter runs, faster design changes, customized formats and functional features such as openings, tear lines, ventilation holes, scoring lines and variable marking.
Traditional die-cutting remains extremely effective for high-volume standardized production. It is fast, robust and well established.
However, when flexibility becomes critical, CO₂ laser processing can become a powerful complementary technology.
The main advantage is simple: no mechanical tool is required.
A digital file can define the cutting path, scoring geometry, perforation pattern or marking layout. This makes laser processing particularly interesting for prototyping, small and medium batches, customized packaging, late-stage design adaptation and functional packaging features.
The industrial value of this approach should not be measured only against traditional die-cutting speed.
It should be evaluated across the complete production workflow: tooling cost, setup time, changeover frequency, design flexibility and the ability to manage variable digital geometries.
This is particularly relevant for cardboard and corrugated packaging, where the same production environment may need to handle different board grades, thicknesses, formats and functional requirements.
For paper-based substrates, CO₂ lasers are particularly suitable because cardboard and corrugated materials absorb mid-infrared radiation efficiently.
Within the CO₂ laser family, the 9.3 µm wavelength deserves particular attention.
In packaging and converting applications, 9.3 µm radiation can provide a different interaction with cellulose-based substrates, coated papers, films and functional layers compared with the more common 10.6 µm wavelength.
This can be especially relevant when the objective is not only cutting through the material, but also controlling the energy input for scoring, perforation, kiss cutting, marking or selective layer removal.
In this sense, wavelength selection becomes part of the process strategy.
Laser power, optical setup, focal length, scanning speed and extraction remain essential parameters, but the wavelength itself can influence process quality, edge behavior and interaction with coatings or multilayer structures.
Technical literature on digital converting confirms the relevance of combining CO₂ laser sources with high-speed galvanometric beam delivery.
Public technical references also confirm that CO₂ laser cutting of corrugated board can reach industrially relevant speeds. In one technical study, a cutting speed of 100 m/min was reported when cutting 1 mm corrugated board with 700 W of CO₂ laser power. The same type of reference highlights one of the key advantages of laser processing in corrugated converting: flexibility, since changing the cutting geometry is mainly a matter of programming.
In our internal tests performed with an El.En CO₂ laser, corrugated cardboard cutting showed very promising results.
As a reference, on 3 mm cardboard, using approximately 350 W and a 3” focal lens, a cutting speed of around 35 m/min was achieved.
Further tests at higher laser power confirmed the potential of CO₂ processing across different cardboard thicknesses:
- 3.0 mm cardboard: up to 1.75 m/s
- 6.5 mm cardboard: up to 0.55 m/s
- 9.0 mm cardboard: up to 0.50 m/s
These values should not be interpreted as universal cutting speeds, but as indicative results obtained under specific test conditions. The final process window must always be validated on the customer’s actual material and target edge quality.
The same laser and scanner platform can support different digital finishing operations:
Cutting for windows, openings, shapes and trimming.
Scoring for controlled folding and bending lines.
Perforation for tear lines, ventilation and easy-opening functions.
Kiss cutting for labels, liners and multilayer structures.
Marking for logos, codes, graphics or late-stage personalization.
This does not mean replacing every conventional converting process.
For very high-volume repetitive jobs, mechanical tooling can still be the most efficient solution.
The opportunity is different: traditional converting for volume, CO₂ laser processing for flexibility, and digital control for customization.
This is where galvanometric beam delivery becomes strategically important.
By combining a high-power CO₂ laser source with a dynamic scan head, the process can move from a fixed mechanical tool to a programmable digital workflow. Geometry changes, variable patterns and different finishing strategies can be managed through software, reducing the need for dedicated tooling and allowing faster adaptation to product requirements.
In this scenario, CO₂ laser processing fits naturally into the evolution of modern packaging production: not as a replacement for all die-cutting operations, but as a flexible platform for digital converting where speed, repeatability and software-defined geometry are key requirements.
As packaging moves toward shorter product cycles and more sustainable materials, manufacturing flexibility becomes as important as material choice.
Sustainability is not only about what packaging is made of.
It is also about how efficiently, flexibly and intelligently it is manufactured.
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