Perforate, Crease, Cut in paper stock

[Jorge Pease]

Hello, I am completely new to lasering.

I have requested information from ULS and Epilogue as I see they are both in high regard here.

I was wondering if somebody can explain - how would you
Perforate, Crease and Cut on a substrate like 18pt board. The cut and perfs are simple enough to understand but how does the laser crease a fold line and is it done as part of the same program as the cutting.

In other words do you hit print and the program does it all including adjusting power or backing off the workpiece, moving faster ??? etc to adjust for less depth of cut?

Thanks for your answer

Jorge

[Joe Pelonio]

I can speak to the Epilog, it's done with color mapping. Each vector line is made a specific color with different speed and power settings assigned to that color.

Then you hit print and it will cut each line the way you set it. Very useful feature.

[Jorge Pease]

Ok, thanks, that is what I was hoping.

[Dan Hintz]

Same with ULS... and Trotec... and...

[Jiten Patel]

Do you guys find scoring and creasing card with a laser is as effective as a pro-card creaser? I found that when folded the card tends to fray and its not as clean or professional as a card creaser.

[David Fairfield]

I laser cut score lines all the time with good, crisp reliable folds, from fine printer paper to heavy cardstock.

There is no standard formula, you have to experiment with your settings for each type of paper you intend to use. They will react differently.

I usually set speed at 100% then experiment with the power setting. Even at 100% speed, the power levels are very low for paper and card around 10% and under.

On the completed graphic, I use color mapping to separate the score lines from the cut lines.

HTH
Dave

[Dan Hintz]

What David said...