Correlative microscopy including CLSM and SEM to improve high-speed, high-resolution laser-engraved print and embossing forms

Markus Bohrer; Michael Schweitzer; Robert Nirnberger; Bernhard Weinberger

doi:10.1117/12.2197471

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16 December 2015 Correlative microscopy including CLSM and SEM to improve high-speed, high-resolution laser-engraved print and embossing forms

Markus Bohrer, Michael Schweitzer, Robert Nirnberger, Bernhard Weinberger

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Proceedings Volume 9636, Scanning Microscopies 2015; 963609 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2197471
Event: SPIE Scanning Microscopies, 2015, Monterey, California, United States

Abstract

The industrial market for processing large-scale films has seen dramatic changes since the 1980s and has almost completely been replaced by lasers and digital processes. A commonly used technology for engraving screens, print and embossing forms in the printing industry, well known since then, is the use of RF-excited CO₂ lasers with a beam power up to about 1 kW, modulated in accordance to the pattern to be engraved. Future needs for high-security printing (banknotes, security papers, passports, etc.) will require laser engraving of at least half a million or even more structured elements with a depth from some μm up to 500 μm. Industry now wants photorealistic pictures in packaging design, which requires a similar performance. To ensure ’trusted pulses’ from the digital process to the print result the use of correlative microscopy (CLSM and SEM) is demonstrated as a complete chain for a correlative print process in this paper.

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Markus Bohrer, Michael Schweitzer, Robert Nirnberger, and Bernhard Weinberger "Correlative microscopy including CLSM and SEM to improve high-speed, high-resolution laser-engraved print and embossing forms", Proc. SPIE 9636, Scanning Microscopies 2015, 963609 (16 December 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2197471

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