Process Date: October 2002

3M™  Laser Markable Film Label Material 7874 is an adhesive-backed white label with a black surface coating that is easily ablated by the CO2 laser to provide attractive and easily readable finished labels. The perforations, kiss cuts, and marking were all made using 10W of laser power. Adjusting the scan speed of the marking head determines the process: marking of the label occurs at a scan speed of 25”/second; kiss cutting of the label without damaging the backing material occurs at a scan speed of 9”/sec; and perforation of the label and backing occurs at a speed of 6”/sec.

   With a 200mm focusing lens, six labels within the 3.8” x 4.7” mark field are processed at one time. Because the label stock is on a roll, the label stock is simply indexed forward so that another series of labels can be processed. In this particular example, the entire process (text, 1D, and 2D barcode marking; backing perforation; and label kiss cutting) was performed on six labels in a cycle time of 27 seconds.


This laser-markable label material, developed by 3M for Nd:YAG laser applications, is easily marked, kiss cut, and perforated using a Synrad 10W CO2 laser and an FH Series marking head.