Laser Cutting and Laser Marking Foils With a 1µm Laser

The use of micro-thin foils is widespread across several industries such as food packaging, electronics and the medical sector to name but a few.

These types of foil can be manufactured from a variety of metals and sometimes incorporate plastics too, especially in the form of surface films.

One such example would be the use of aluminium foil to seal the openings of polypropylene test tubes used within the medical sector to contain and grow biological samples and cultures. The foil can be laminated between two lasers of plastic; the surface layer acts to protect the aluminium from scratching/tearing or prematurely perforating and the underside layer is used as a catalyst to help affix the foil to the rim of the tube and form a perfect, strong and airtight seal.

In this example a number of these plastic tubes will be loaded to a tray, biological samples placed within the tubes, then one sheet of laminated foil is used to seal all of the tubes within the tray. Historically, the tray will then pass to a punching process where steel tools will cut away the unused material, in the process separating one tube from the next.

The process described above places a high degree of wear/tear on the steel tools, which require frequent replacement. Also, the user has no way to adjust the cut and this contact method of cutting produces a high number of rejects through broken seals or damaged tubes.

By replacing the physical cutting tool with a laser cutter, the non-contact process is more accurate, cleaner and can be faster too. As there is no tool to blunt, there is no degradation in the quality of cut even when the production volumes are high, so the degree of rejected product is minimal if any at all.

In the past we have used several configurations of 1µm fiber laser machine, primarily configured as a laser marking machine, to cut these types of foil. When laser cutting foil the system parameters as well as the number of beam delivery passes can be adjusted to create the ideal cut.

An added benefit is that the same machine being used for laser cutting of the foil can also be applied for laser marking too.

In the food industry it is common to find a 1µm fiber laser marking machine applying UID marks, such as barcodes and manufacturing time/date and other such marks to the wrappers of ice-cream, potato chips (crisps) and other foods that are commonly foil wrapped.

At Lotus Laser Systems we manufacture a wide range of technology solutions ideally configured for laser cutting, laser marking and laser engraving all types of materials. Our experts would be happy to recommend which configuration best suits your application.