The Light Lane Control Layer reads the PLC tag that identifies the part at the head, pulls the job, batch or serial from the system that already owns it, composes the mark for that individual part and fires it. Everything between the part and the beam is mechanical: the conveyor that indexes it, the rotary that turns it, the jig that holds it in the same position run after run, the extraction that takes the fume away, the enclosure that makes it a Class 4 installation an operator can stand beside, and the vision pass that finds the part before the mark is placed. Those modules are designed and built in our Nelson facility around the parts you actually run, and on a moving line a single galvo head holds a typical timber brand across 40 to 120 m/min.
A module is the physical engineering that puts a part in front of the beam in a known position, at a known rate, in a state the optics can work with. Swap the module and the same station moves from batched flat parts to cylindrical stock to a casting that has to be held still, while the composition engine, the connection patterns and the acceptance document set behind it stay exactly where they are.
Every module is engineered against the parts you run: the material and surface state at the marking point, the way the part arrives, the rate the line holds, and what happens to the part afterwards. Three axis dynamic focus holds focus across height, taper, curvature and inclined faces, built-in distance sensors correct focus continuously, and vision corrects X, Y and rotational offset before the mark is placed. So presentation variability becomes a number in the specification: the height and orientation variation the station holds, and the point at which fixturing becomes cheaper than optics.
The bottleneck on most marking work is an operator loading one part at a time, which is how a fast head runs well under its own rated speed all day. A module that feeds, indexes or holds parts on its own is what converts head speed into line throughput. Each one carries a cost in floor space, changeover, or design and build time before the first part runs, and that cost is stated per module in the selection table below.
A marking head added into a fibre or CO2 cutter the plant already owns, wired into the job the machine is already running.
Part way through a cut the machine is already running, it pauses, the head fires the traceability code onto the part exactly where it sits in the fixture, and the cutter resumes the same job. That removes the entire handling step where a part goes missing, gets swapped, or picks up another part's record between cutting and marking. The part is anonymous from the second it drops out of the nest, and this closes the gap at the only moment the machine still knows what the part is: the part number never leaves the fixture, so it can never be attached to another part's record. The code carried is the identifier your ERP or MES already generated against that job, and the completion is written back against the same job with timestamp, operator, machine and station. Feasibility turns on the controller, the cutting head clearance and whether the work envelope can physically carry a second head, so it is assessed at survey on the specific machine.
One core behind every one of them. The module is chosen against the part, the line and the plant, and a station usually runs two or three. Floor space, cycle time and operator attention are stated per module in the table below, and full dimensions, speed envelopes and duty cycles sit on the specifications page.
A belt or indexing conveyor feeds batched flat parts through the beam path: tags, flat brackets, plates, packaging blanks. Parts load once at the head of the line and the station cycles the batch without an operator reloading between pieces. It takes a run of floor space roughly the length of the belt in front of and behind the station, and it changes over between part families in minutes rather than a full re-jig.
A rotary axis turns cylindrical stock under the beam: drinkware, tube, barware, round barrel and shaft parts. Turning the part instead of scanning a flat field is what produces a true wrap-around mark on a curved surface rather than a one-sided, distorted one. A rotary adds to the height and depth of the work envelope rather than the station footprint, and moving between part diameters is a chuck change.
A jig holds an irregular or repeat part in the same position run after run, so the mark lands in the same place without an operator eyeballing alignment each cycle. Built to the actual geometry: a bracket, a casting, a fastener pattern. The cost sits up front, in design and build time before the first production part runs, and a jig cut for one geometry is reworked for a second. Where a product range moves often, vision alignment is specified in its place, and that decision is made at survey with the cost attached.
Fume and particulate extraction sized to the material and the enclosure, for materials that produce smoke, dust or off-gas: coated metals, plastics, some timber species. Treatment chemistry on H3 and H4 timber changes both the mark colour and the fume, so extraction and safety data are reviewed per product rather than carried over from another mill. It takes real floor space of its own, a filtration unit or a ducted run, and the filter is one of the two genuine consumables on a laser line.
Class 4 laser safety is enclosure, interlocked doors, beam containment and a rated safety circuit, specified to ISO 11553-1, IEC 60825-1, IEC 60204-1 and ISO 13849-1 and designed into the install rather than added to it afterwards. The beam holds off with a guard open, and operators working beside the station do their job without laser safety eyewear. Sized to your floor space and to the way operators actually approach the machine.
A vision pass locates the part, or a feature on the part, and corrects X, Y and rotational offset before the beam fires, so the mark lands correctly on pre-cut, irregular or inconsistently presented parts, which is most real production floors. It adds a calibration pass per part family and a locate step measured in a fraction of a second per part, and it is what holds placement across a range that would otherwise need a new jig for every geometry.
For the parts that never come to a station: a casting on the floor, a fabricated frame, plant already installed, capital equipment marked where it stands. The head travels to the part on a counterbalanced arm, or comes off the arm as a handheld rig, designed and built in our Nelson facility for the environments a gantry does not reach. An operator positions and fires each mark, so it is specified for low volume, high value and one-off work, and an asset you cannot identify is an asset you will buy twice.
A galvo head steers the beam with a scanning mirror pair instead of moving the whole optic, which is what lets it draw a complete mark onto a part that is still moving past it on a line.
A typical timber brand holds across roughly 40 to 120 m/min of line speed on one galvo head. A full height dense brand, around 40 mm high and up to roughly 600 mm long, tops out around 75 to 85 m/min on one head, because the ceiling is how much stroke length one scanning mirror pair can draw in the time the part spends in its field of view, so above that the specification is a second head sharing the mark on the same encoder rather than a faster head. The mark content sets most of that ceiling and the module set moves the rest of it: a wider field of view keeps the part inside the mirror pair's reach for longer at the same line speed, which is why the head and the part presentation are specified against each other rather than one after the other. The figures published here are typical envelopes from our own testing, and the binding number is the one written into the acceptance criteria after the Marking Process Capability Study on your own material. A published speed with no mark stated beside it is decoration, so ask anyone quoting one: at what mark height, at what character density, over what mark length, at what power.
Full dimensions, speed envelopes and duty cycles are on the specifications page. This is the selection summary used at survey.
| Module | Floor space | Cycle time | Operator attention |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conveyors | A belt length in front of and behind the station | Near zero once loaded; batches run through unattended | Load the batch, then largely hands off |
| Rotaries | Adds to work envelope height and depth, not to the footprint | Per-part cycle time similar to flat marking | Load and chuck each part, or feed from a hopper where volume justifies it |
| Fixturing and jigs | Minimal once built; sits inside the existing work envelope | Fast per part once the jig is in place | Load into the jig each cycle; design and build time lands before the first part |
| Extraction and filtration | A filtration unit or a ducted run, real floor space of its own | No direct cycle time cost | Periodic filter changes on a schedule set by the actual dust and resin load |
| Safety enclosures and interlocks | Fixed footprint around the station | No cycle time cost | Effectively none once commissioned |
| Camera and vision alignment | Minimal; sits at the work envelope | A locate step per part, typically a fraction of a second | A calibration pass per part family, then largely hands off |
| Counterbalanced arm and handheld heads | Reach follows arm length rather than a fixed footprint | Slowest per part of any module; hand positioned | An operator positions and fires every mark, high attention |
| Galvo heads | Sits at the marking station, no added footprint | Fastest per part; marks while the part moves at 40 to 120 m/min on a typical timber brand | Automatic once the PLC tag and the job pull are set up |
| In-fixture marking head | None added; the head mounts inside the cutter's existing envelope | The pause and the mark sit inside the cut cycle already running | None; the code fires inside the job the machine is already running |
A module presents the part. It leaves the physics of what the source puts into the material exactly where it was, so where the material and the mark call for a different wavelength the answer is source selection rather than tooling. That decision runs off the source selection matrix and it is settled before the module set is drawn, because the working distance and the field of view a given source gives you are the envelope the fixturing has to be built inside.
Where the required rate sits above what one scanning mirror pair can draw for a given brand, around 75 to 85 m/min on a full height dense brand, the specification is a second head sharing the mark on the same encoder rather than a faster conveyor, because feeding parts in faster than the beam can draw them queues them at the head. Drawing time is characterised first and the handling is specified against it.
Where a product range moves often, a fixed jig is replaced by vision alignment or by a flexible fixture designed for that range from the start, and that decision is made at survey with the cost attached rather than after the jig is built. Where an existing machine is the intended host, the controller, the cutting head clearance and the work envelope are assessed against the module before anything is ordered, and the result goes into the written site scope.
Each step produces a checkable object, and each module is designed against what the step before it measured.
Send us a part
Send the part in the surface state it reaches the marking point in, and say where in the line that point sits, because mill scale, coating, kiln moisture and cutting oil each move the parameter set. You receive a numbered Marking Process Capability Study stating the substrate and surface condition as received, the parameter set, the verification grade against the applicable standard, the durability result against those conditions, and the determined process window.
Why it matters: The parameter set that comes back states how long the beam needs on each part, and that dwell decides whether the part can index past on a belt or has to be brought to a stop and held.
Site scope on your floor
What the part is, how it arrives at the marking point, what the line actually runs at, the floor space, power and extraction route available, and how operators approach the station. Photos, drawings and a video call cover it where a visit is awkward to arrange. The module set comes out of what the survey measured, not out of a catalogue.
Why it matters: A fixture that clears the part on a drawing and fouls the guard on the floor is found either at survey or at install, and survey is the cheaper of the two.
Acceptance specification, written before the build
Module set, part presentation and the placement tolerance the station holds, cycle time against the real line rate, integration points, safety and extraction layout, and symbol quality graded per ISO/IEC 15415 for 2D and ISO/IEC 15416 for linear at the grade your scanner class supports. Price is itemised per module rather than folded into one line labelled system, so you see exactly what each piece does and what it costs.
Why it matters: A placement tolerance written down before the build is a number the fixturing is engineered to hold. Arrived at during commissioning, it is whatever the station happens to do.
Build and factory acceptance in Nelson
The modules are built, configured and staged with the rest of the station, then run end to end against representative parts under the Factory Acceptance Protocol: the jig loaded and unloaded at cycle rate, the conveyor indexing, the guard closed with the interlock proving, and the marks graded off the parts that came out the far end.
Why it matters: A jig, a conveyor, an enclosure and a head are drawn separately and meet as one assembly for the first time on the build floor, with representative parts in hand and the programme still open.
Install, commissioning and first-run validation
Install, alignment, calibration, safety sign-off and a first-run validation pass on your own parts at your own line rate, against the acceptance criteria agreed in writing before the build started. Operators, shift leads and maintenance are trained on real jobs until they run the station without us in the room.
Why it matters: More than one person is trained, because a single trained operator takes annual leave.
Add modules against the reference design
The commissioned station is documented as a reference design covering marking parameters per material, fixture and rig drawings, the interface specification as built, safety and extraction layout, operator procedure, maintenance schedule and spares list. The next module is specified against that document rather than against a blank page, and it is added without rebuilding the station around it.
Why it matters: The second install should cost less than the first. If it does not, the first was not properly documented.
That is assessed at survey against three things: whether the controller is one the Light Lane core emits into, whether the chassis and work envelope physically carry the module, and whether the safety circuit can be brought to the specification the install requires. The core emits one internal, dialect-neutral motion program into GRBL, Marlin, Smoothieware and Generic dialects, with power scaling read off the controller's own registers at connect time rather than assumed. The survey comes back with a written answer against your specific machine, listing the module set and the integration points.
It is designed for exactly that. The head is added into the fibre or CO2 cutter already on your floor and wired into the job the machine is already running, so the cut pauses, the code lands in the fixture and the cut resumes. Feasibility turns on the controller, the cutting head clearance and whether the work envelope can physically carry a second head, which is assessed at survey on the specific machine and written into the scope before anything is ordered.
Per module, as its own line item. A standard conveyor or rotary is a smaller line item than a jig engineered to a single geometry or a counterbalanced arm, because the design work behind the standard forms is already done. Tooling designed to your part is quoted against the brief once we have seen the part, and the proposal carries the module set, the integration points, the dated programme and the price as discrete items, so a buying group can see what buys what.
The station stays and the module changes. The composition engine, the connection patterns and the acceptance document set behind the station are the same whichever module sits in front of it, so a new product family is a parameter set and a presentation decision rather than a rebuild. A station that started on a conveyor for batched flat parts takes a rotary for cylindrical work later, specified against the same reference design.
Tooling designed to your part typically runs four to ten weeks from approved brief to delivered module, moved by geometry complexity, materials, and any integration with the equipment upstream and downstream of the station. The proposal carries the dated programme, and the module is run end to end against representative parts in Nelson before it ships.
Bring the part, the rate the station would have to hold, the conditions the mark has to survive downstream, and the name of the system that issues your job numbers. We survey the actual line, measure how the part arrives at the marking point, and come back with the module set, the placement tolerance the station holds, the integration points, and a price itemised per module. Bring the hardest part in the range alongside the typical one, because the module set is specified against the harder of the two.
Last updated August 21, 2026