An example of the intricate laser cuting ability of Trilogy Lasercraft
With the advent of modern and high profile laser cutting systems on the market, much interest is being shown in the process. It means there is life in Trilogy Lasercraft’s time-served P4 laser cutters after all.
Laser cutting has been enjoying a high profile in the print industry of late, much of it perhaps due to the investment by Screaming Colour in the new Motioncutter system from Germany. Richard Dyson has been enjoying all the hype.
‘We are seeing competition and a lot of interest in what Screaming Colour is doing. I don’t mind that because it is educating the market,’ he told Digital Printer. Mr Dyson is the managing director of Trilogy Lasercraft, the Huntingdon company that has been laser cutting paper for more than ten years, and laser engraving wood and other materials for its awards business for even longer.
He reflects upon this early in the conversation: that direct laser cutting of paper has been around for more than 25 years; that for a long time there was only Fulmar’s operation in the UK; and that his business, which was thriving in wood engraving, started getting enquiries for paper cutting, leading to it buying one of Fulmar’s machines – a Lasercraft P4 – in 2003, at a time when Fulmar was winding the operation down.
What followed was a healthy business in greetings card work – which was surprisingly robust during the recession – and a commission to undertake a job laser cutting cupcake wrappers for a packaging company (millions of wrappers have since been produced). There has been investment in a second P4, as well as smaller, more modern laser cutting systems from the Italian manufacturer SEi Laser, taking Trilogy Lasercraft’s armoury of paper cutting systems to four. While both the greetings card and cupcake wrapper volumes have ebbed in the last few years, Mr Dyson reports that the corporate side of the market is now picking up, as laser cutting becomes a more widely known process for adding creativity to design and print.
‘The interesting thing there is the acceptance of the technology being a proven technology,’ he continued. ‘I’m seeing more briefs coming from printers where the original designers’ brief specifies laser cutting. We have to inspire the designers to use the process; show them what they can do, beyond die-cutting; then they have to inspire the end users to put their hands their pockets.’
He encourages both printers and designers to offer laser cutting to their respective customers, for the simple reason that when used correctly it makes things look better.
‘What we can offer is only at its best in collaboration with good design,’ he said. ‘It’s not just die-cutting-plus. That’s missing the point. It allows the designer to produce a very different piece. You can laser cut something and make it finer or more intricate, and it will make you look better. The one thing that gets forgotten in most of these discussions is the end user. We are giving them another process that can make their product look fantastic; but it needs good design.’
He said that the printers that regularly contact Trilogy Lasercraft for laser cutting are ‘the guys that are looking to add value to printed material’. These are, he says, few and far between. While the company has not been especially active in getting out on the road to sell its capability (it will be more active this year), Mr Dyson is accustomed to the reaction of most printers, who see the process, are enthusiastic about its results, but rarely ever follow up on the samples they ask for. He understands that intricate paper cutting is not called for in every job, and that cost is a constant battle.
‘We are part of finishing but we are an embellishment. It’s rarely essential to the design. As such the designer will include it and then nibble away to get to the point where the client says yes, let’s do that,’ he said. Against this however is the other imperative: giving a product real stand out.
The P4 machines are now 25 years old and with the arrival on the market of more modern, sexier laser cutting systems, you would think the old warhorses’ time is nearly up. Mr Dyson himself thought this until he looked more closely at the situation.
‘We expect to get at least another 10 years life out of these, and hopefully 20 years,’ he explained. ‘The new generation machinery I have seen, the systems cost 300,000 to 400,000 euros, but they are not quicker than the P4, if you take a like-for-like design. All the new machines are brilliant, but they are still not as fast, and often you are hand-feeding them. Slowly but surely, everyone is coming to the conclusion that you still need these machines if you want volume. That’s a relatively new revelation even for me!’
