Material family
Paper & Board
Paper and board, from carton board and coated papers to label stock — cutting, scoring, and etching in register to print.
Also called: folding carton board · SBS · coated paperboard · label stock
- Wavelengths
- CO₂ — 10.6 µm typical; paper and board absorb it near-completely
- Pulse regime
- Modulated CO₂ — edge browning is controlled through pulse energy and speed
- Why the pulse regime matters →
Why these wavelengths
How deep a wavelength penetrates before it is absorbed decides which layer it heats and how much of the pulse reaches the next one. This family’s materials are on the chart. Add others to compare. Every curve is computed from published optical constants, not from our own claims. The sources are in the table below the chart.
Materials on the chart — up to 6 at a time
Gold lines are the laser wavelengths LasX runs; click a laser label to jump to it. Curves stop where the material is transparent for practical purposes — polymers below 1 cm⁻¹ (the datasets’ detection floor), glasses below 0.01 cm⁻¹ (penetration beyond 1 m).
Values at the laser wavelengths, and sources
| Material | 355 nm | 532 nm | 1064 nm | 9.36 µm (9.4 µm laser line) | 10.2 µm | 10.6 µm | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water (moisture, tissue, hydrogels) | 0.00086 cm⁻¹ 12 m | 0.00043 cm⁻¹ 23 m | 0.2 cm⁻¹ 6.4 cm | 577 cm⁻¹ 17 µm | 687 cm⁻¹ 15 µm | 848 cm⁻¹ 12 µm | Segelstein 1981 / Hale & Querry 1973 via refractiveindex.info, CC0 |
| Polyethylene (HDPE / LDPE) | — | — | — | — | — | 9.6 cm⁻¹ 1.0 mm | Coelho et al. 2004, Polymer Testing 23, 307 Measured films at 10.6 µm; no strong band anywhere in the CO₂ range; transparent through the visible and NIR. |
| PET (polyester) | — | — | — | 558 cm⁻¹ 18 µm | 471 cm⁻¹ 21 µm | 199 cm⁻¹ 50 µm | Zhang et al. 2020 (Appl. Opt. 59; JQSRT 252) via refractiveindex.info, CC0 Clear, additive-free resin. Below 1 cm⁻¹ the data sit at the detection floor and are not drawn — the film is transparent there. |
— : outside the dataset, or below its detection floor (transparent for practical purposes). Non-metals: α = 4πk/λ; penetration depth 1/α is where 63 % of the beam has been absorbed. Metals: A = 1 − R at normal incidence. All optical constants from the refractiveindex.info database (public domain, CC0); literature points as cited. Full source list and verification notes: docs/charts in the site repository.
Process data
| Edge appearance | Trial data requiredBrowning is tunable per stock; documented per trial. |
|---|---|
| Score/fold quality | Trial data required |
| Achievable sheet rate | Trial data required |
Entries marked “trial data required” have not been run on your specific construction. We publish only what we have measured.
Typical constructions
- Coated and uncoated folding carton board
- Litho-laminated structures
- Pressure-sensitive label stock
- Specialty and textured papers
What usually decides it
Board is the friendliest material family for CO₂. Whether it cuts is rarely the question. The question is what the edge looks like at the speed that pays.
Paper wants to absorb 10.6 µm light. The engineering is in the edge.
See it run
Fill in the missing numbers with your actual material.
Every trial adds to the measured record behind these pages. It also adds to the process model we are building to predict the window before the first test piece is cut.