LasX Europe established in Germany

LasX has manufactured high performance laser cutting systems in the US since it was first established in 1998. Its range of LaserSharp laser cutters have a wide choice of configurations, from roll feeding for narrow web labels and flexo finishing, though to sheet-fed systems for commercial printing and carton packaging from 50cm (B2 formats) up to two meter widths. There are also LaserSharp systems dedicated to electronics and medical work.

There is a choice of laser power levels from 100W to 2,500W, and multiple laser heads can be fitted to increase the cutting width. LasX systems can cut, crease, score, etch and ablate materials depending on the intensity setting, so almost any finishing process can be carried out. The transport belt runs at up to 60m/min (197ft/min), with a vacuum that ensures that sheets and cut items remain firmly in place throughout the process.

Its latest development is a twin camera optical recognition system that reads barcodes and positioning marks on the printed material and uses this to precisely align both the laser heads and the optional in-line LaserSharp Spider STS-400 robotic stacker, which can automatically pick up, sort, rotate, stack, shingle, and/or collate variable nested parts at high speed. For wider configurations two stackers can be fitted side by side.

The public debut of LasX Europe will be at next week’s Dscoop EMEA conference, running June 3-5 in Dublin, Ireland. At Dscoop Open, a Spider STS-400 robotic stacker will be demonstrated stacking cartons that have been pre-printed on an HP Indigo 30000 B2 digital carton press, and pre-cut by a LaserSharp B2 Motion cutter.

The Hannover office incorporates a showroom for demonstrations of equipment and also has a parts warehouse for fast response to service calls. Installations and servicing will be handled by engineers based in Hannover, aided by remote diagnostics on every machine.

In addition to the office in Hannover, a network of agents is currently being established throughout the EMEA region. This includes CMD Insight as its distributor in the UK.

Dirk Stünkel, LasX Europe managing director, said: ‘As short run and personalized printing becomes ever more attractive to clients, digital finishing has been the missing link to make the whole workflow truly responsive.

‘LasX has pioneered fully automatic laser cutters coupled with robotic materials handling, which uniquely can all be controlled by reading barcodes on the printed materials.

‘We can run in-line with printing presses or near-line. We also work with partner companies to integrate with, for example, digitally addressed creasing systems that operate before the material reaches the laser unit.’