How would you cut sandpaper without wearing out or blunting the cutting tool? It would be hard without using a blade as hard as diamond. But you can use a laser cutter. Being a non contact process, a laser cutter is a precise and sharp tool for cutting abrasive materials. Abrasive materials are within the broad array of non-metals that can be successfully processed by El.En.'s CO₂ laser sources. You can cut your sheets in different shapes, based on the requests of your customers. All kinds of shapes can be obtained without risking any material deformation or tool wear. But what's interesting, is also you being able to cut, together with the abrasive material, its backing substrate, be it paper, foam, rubber and the like. Explore which CO₂ laser sources are the most suitable for your production needs.

For some industries, the container is as important as the content. Cutting or marking cardboard sheets with CO₂ laser allows the creation of attractive packaging that can help better sell products. Whether your packaging is designed to showcase ripe blackberries or protect precious crystal glasses, El.En. laser sources will streamline your process. Laser cardboard processing gives you all the advantages of digital finishing: Cutting intricate designs with smooth edges and perfectly square joints, high-speed processing, accuracy and flexibility even on tight tolerances. No hard-tooling is required: Avoid the costs of designing tools, forget tool wear and periodic tooling substitution. Laser processing is no-contact and that's why it can be so fast and flexible and cost-effective.

Ceramic can be effectively cut and decorated with CO₂ laser sources. Owing to its high absorptivity of the 10.6 micrometers radiation, alumina (Al2O3) is the variety of ceramic that benefits the most from digital laser processing. Cutting of alumina is achieved by high-power laser pulses that vaporize the surface and produce perfect cuts. CO₂ laser can also be used for the decoration of tiles and other ceramic surfaces. With laser engraving, items are decorated with extreme precision, and according to the power of the CO₂ laser produced by El.En., contrasting and shading is achievable as well. These features make El.En.'s laser sources the perfect choice for applications such as cutting and decoration of ceramic and alumina.

Coupled with a scanning head, a CO₂ laser source can easily process fabric, be it synthetic or natural. Because of its low thermal conductivity and high energetic absorptivity, fabric absorbs great part of the energy it receives, and thus it can easily be cut or marked even by low-power CO₂ laser sources. No moving parts or hard-tooling are involved: The laser beam is steered onto the surface by the mirrors of a scanning head, following a specific, computer-driven path. Depending on the speed of the scanning head, the same laser source can either mark or cut. Less waste, less dust, clean edges are only a few of the advantages you will gain in using El.En.’s technology. Find out which of El.En.'s laser devices can best serve the needs of your industry!

CO₂ lasers are a good choice for organic materials processing, because, like all carbon based materials, they absorb the 10.6 micrometers radiation of a CO₂ laser well. As a consequence, achieving laser organic material processing requires a very tiny amount of energy. Laser marking or bio-stimulation can be achieved in a new and cost-effective way. Through the years, El.En.'s laser sources found application all over the world in industrial processes as diverse as marking Parmesan cheese, fruit, or ham, cutting chestnuts or grafting plants.

Leather laser processing is widely used in the decoration and fashion industries. Cutting out intricate shapes, drilling hundreds of micro-holes or etching the most complicated arabesque is possible with El.En.'s laser sources. Using laser on leather is an extremely efficient operation: Since leather is a high-absorptive and low-conductive material, it takes small amounts of energy to get great results with low costs. Forget strong fixturing, metal dies or slow operations: The implementation of a laser source in your system will dramatically streamline your clean leather processing operations and boost your productivity rate!

Laser source technology offers several advantages:

•    exclusive and incomparable decorative effects;

•    low operational costs;

•    inexistent environmental impact;

•    work safety.

Marble, granite and polished natural stones can be successfully processed with CO₂ laser. Coupled with an El.En.'s laser scanner, El.En.'s CO₂ laser sources mark marble slabs at an exceptional level of detail. Laser marble processing works through ablation of a thin layer of material from the surface. Being a non-contact process, this technique is much faster than any mechanical method. No tool wear, no need of cleaning, no strong fixturing: Laser marking of marble slabs at this level of detail has never been so straightforward.

CO₂ laser can also be used on metals and is particularly suitable for cleaning and paint stripping. Laser cleaning is used at industrial level for the maintenance of machinery, tools and products. It can be useful to remove processing residues such as grease, rubber or other carbon-based materials. Laser paint stripping is part of the laser cleaning application family, where the laser is used to remove a layer of paint from a large or small metal surface. Both laser cleaning and laser paint removal utilise the CO₂ laser's ability to selectively target only the materials that are compatible with its wavelength. Cleaning operations can therefore be carried out without the risk of accidentally damaging or abrading the surface to be cleaned.

Paper and cardboard respond very well to the wavelength emitted by CO₂ laser beams. That makes paper digital converting extremely efficient. Being a non-contact process, laser finishing avoids the risk of deformation or distortion of the base material, always ensuring clean cuts and square edges, even with the most intricate designs. For those reasons, cutting and marking are the obvious applications of laser paper processing. Owing to their accuracy, El.En.'s CO₂ laser sources are also used in applications such as laser kiss cutting and laser micro-perforation, especially in the packaging and decorating.

CO₂ laser is a groundbreaking tool for plastic film processing applications. Packaging, coating, digital converting markets will all benefit from a CO₂ laser solution. Being a non-contact process, laser is perfect when you have to deal with a base material as delicate as plastic film. It is a non-contact process: You won't waste or deform the plastic film and you will get the most accurate results achievable today in manufacturing this plastic material. El.En. laser scanning heads make this process possible: They will steer the laser beam emitted by the CO₂ laser source, focusing it precisely where it is needed. By doing so, you will achieve processing such as kiss cutting, micro perforation or welding in applications such as easy opening packaging, micro-perforated films for bread and vegetables.

Rubber and foam are ideal for laser processing. Both natural and synthetic rubber and foam can be effectively cut by CO₂ laser sources. Compared to traditional cutting techniques such as die punch, laser digital finishing ensures a high accuracy and quality of cut, even at very tight tolerances. Forget tool wear, strong fixturing or a bad quality of the cutting edges: Being a non-contact process, laser cutting produces a neat cut even at the highest processing speed. El.En.'s CO₂ laser sources can achieve cutting or marking applications at a great level of detail and within close tolerances.

A CO₂ laser source is an excellent choice for non-metals such as solid wood and engineered wood. Like every carbon-based material, wood absorbs a large amount of the power emitted by a CO₂ laser beam at 10.6 micrometers. That's why cutting and decorating are the mainstay of laser woodworking: Depending on the output energy, the outcome goes from simple engraving to die cutting. Compared to traditional woodworking, laser wood processing has no equals in speed and flexibility. El.En.’s laser sources and scanning heads are geared towards dealing with the tightest tolerances and the most intricate designs to let you meet the strictest requirements of quality and precision.

Many other are the uses of laser on wood: Engraving of any thickness and kind of wood, Wood-covered paper and dual-color wood, Marking on natural, semi-finished, finished and polished wood or Grooves on thick materials, especially rough or semi-finished.

The results obtained on rough wood may acquire colors ranging from dark brown to beige. Effects of simple opacification may be obtained on laminated or painted materials, according to their composition.