[laserkelvin]

Every laser can cut paper, but at the same time paper is also one of the most difficult materials to work .

The laser beam will essentially burn and evaporate the material leaving black carbon dust on the edges.
That will make the edges appear dark and if you touch them you may spread the dust over the clean surface therefore make the paper products look dirty and messy...

Firstly , the quicker you can cut through, the less chance of burning.
The way to limit this problem is to run the laser beam with the highest stable-speed so it can penetrate the material but build less carbon on the edges. The maximum stable-speed varies greatly from machine to machine and unfortunately this most important parameter is never listed on the standard machine specifications. If you run the machine pass its stable limits the cut edges will be jagged/ridged/rough.
The maximum stable-speed will depend mostly on the machine mechanical construction, quality of the components and the type of motors used. As you may guess for high-stable speed you will need expensive construction. Now many factories use XY gantry laser machines to cut paper , but because its speed is too slow , usually it is not over 2000mm/s, So it still have dark/black/yellow on the cutting edges , If your clients requirement is not higher , this models will be suitable for you . But who will buy a invitation cards with dirty looking ? So the important is up the speed , which use galvo scanner to up the speed, usually some Chinese galvo can do that , but not very stable and also not very fast . As i know the American CTI galvo scanner is perfect, which normal speed is 4000-7000mm/s , ultra fast , so it can make the laser just cut the paper without any yellow or black edges . It just needs about 7-10 seconds to cut one wedding cards, so one day one machine can cut about 6000 pcs cards with high quality .

Secondly , it is the selection of the laser source (tube). There are 2 types used for paper: Radio Frequency (RF) metal tubes or general Glass tubes. The glass tube technology is significantly cheaper but it has some very unpleasant side effects when working with paper. The ignition power is often higher than what necessary for cutting paper and the power will vary greatly during the cutting. The result will be uneven cut lines with darker (burned) areas and lighter or even uncut areas. The RF tubes are the better choice for cutting paper because they don't have any of these issues. Also some factory use 55watts, 100watts, 120watts , but it is not enough for cutting 400*400mm size, still will have some yellow edges , the Coherent 180watts is good choice . Just the cost is higher, but luckily some chinese RF metal tube is better and better .

Thirdly , the smoke exhaust is very important. If the exhausting power is not stronger , the smoke will make the cutting edge yellow or dark . And the work table deepthness also need to not less 15cm , If not enough , the laser will burn the waste paper cutting pieces.
Also the paper cards bottom should be empty , If it is honeycomb worktable , it will reflect the laser to make the cards backside appear black dots and so on .

Now also have the camera-controlled systems on the laser cutting machines . They are essential if you plan to work with printed paper. With the help of the camera the machine will accurately detect the printed graphics or the edges of the paper-sheets and align the cutting accordingly. As I know Argus Laser already have this CCD laser marking machines , which can cut printing paper cards and stickers and so on . Last year i saw one UK client use this model to cut their package stickers .

By the way , selecting the right paper is also very important. Some will cut cleaner then others.

As i know , Argus laser have full experience on the wedding invitation cards and pop up cards laser cutting machines . They did this since 1998, now they are leader in these fields . Many clients factories use their machines, such as Aisa biggest wish cards factory have 40 sets of their machine , very amazing for their workshop .