{"id":1783,"date":"2021-12-29T12:28:49","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T12:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanta.com\/precision-manufacturing\/?post_type=novanta_tech_paper&#038;p=1783"},"modified":"2026-06-26T13:40:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T13:40:42","slug":"alternative-wavelengths-for-co2-lasers","status":"publish","type":"novanta_tech_paper","link":"https:\/\/novanta.com\/precision-manufacturing\/resources\/whitepapers\/alternative-wavelengths-for-co2-lasers\/","title":{"rendered":"Alternative Wavelengths for CO2\u00a0Lasers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-technical-paper-overview\">Technical Paper Overview\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-alternative-wavelengths-for-co\u2082-lasers\"><strong>Alternative Wavelengths for CO\u2082 Lasers<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Material absorption, not industry default, decides CO\u2082 laser wavelength choice.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most CO\u2082 laser specs lead with 10.6 \u00b5m \u2014 the default wavelength, the most commonly available, the safe choice for general-purpose marking and cutting. But for specific materials in real production, 10.6 \u00b5m produces noticeable trade-offs: inconsistent marks on glossy paperboard, melt lips on polypropylene film cuts, invisible marks on PET bottles, charred edges on FR4 PCBs. The wavelength that ships by default isn&#8217;t always the one that wins on your material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This technical paper walks through where the 9.3 \u00b5m and 10.2 \u00b5m CO\u2082 wavelengths outperform 10.6 \u00b5m on specific materials \u2014 including 2.5\u20134\u00d7 cutting-speed gains on polypropylene at 10.2 \u00b5m and high-contrast frosted PET marking at 9.3 \u00b5m \u2014 with absorption spectra and side-by-side visual comparisons so you can match laser to material before specification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-key-takeaways-include\">Key takeaways include:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Why material absorption \u2014 not the 10.6 \u00b5m default \u2014 drives CO\u2082 laser application quality and throughput<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How 10.2 \u00b5m delivers 2.5\u20134\u00d7 cutting-speed gains on polypropylene (OPP, CPP, PP) films over 10.6 \u00b5m<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When to specify 9.3 \u00b5m: PET bottles, polarizer films, polyimide (Kapton), FR4\/FR2 PCBs, polycarbonate, Pebax medical tubing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What visual differences look like in production: side-by-side marks on paperboard, PET bottles, OPP films, and PET films<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A practical material-to-wavelength matrix you can apply before purchase to avoid mismatched CO\u2082 specifications<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Download the full technical paper for the absorption spectra of polypropylene and PET, side-by-side visual comparisons across wavelengths, and a material-to-wavelength reference matrix you can use to specify the right CO\u2082 laser for your specific application \u2014 before the wrong wavelength shows up as scrap on your line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Technical Paper Overview\u00a0 Alternative Wavelengths for CO\u2082 Lasers Material absorption, not industry default, decides CO\u2082 laser wavelength choice. Most CO\u2082 laser specs lead with 10.6 \u00b5m \u2014 the default wavelength, the most commonly available, the safe choice for general-purpose marking and cutting. But for specific materials in real production, 10.6 \u00b5m produces noticeable trade-offs: inconsistent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":1082,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"show_table_of_content":true},"class_list":["post-1783","novanta_tech_paper","type-novanta_tech_paper","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.0 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Alternative Wavelengths for CO2\u00a0Lasers - Precision Manufacturing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/novanta.com\/precision-manufacturing\/resources\/whitepapers\/alternative-wavelengths-for-co2-lasers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alternative Wavelengths for CO2\u00a0Lasers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Technical Paper Overview\u00a0 Alternative Wavelengths for CO\u2082 Lasers Material absorption, not industry default, decides CO\u2082 laser wavelength choice. 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