Compared with mechanical surface finishing processes, laser cutting offers advantages over mechanical cutting processes, including being easier to work with, reducing contamination of work-piece, and a cleaner surface finish.

To complete CNC processes, laser cutting and engraving processes are applied to make the molding, work the surface, cut the material, drill PCB holes, and cut electrodes. The laser cutting takes direct input in the form of electronic data from a CAD drawing to produce flat form parts of great complexity. By using laser technology, accuracy and precision can be easily reached.

One challenge equipment manufacturers face is how to control the intensity of the laser with synchronous positioning and speed movements. To improve the smooth path of a uniform laser process, the ADLINK PCI-8254/8258 utilizes a look-up table to ensure accurate variability of intensity and speed of movement. In addition, the PCI-8254/8258 provides both PWM and analog signals to control the intensity of the laser precisely by separately changing the frequency or period of PWM signals.

The PCI-8254/8258 also features a point-table function to simultaneously perform a particular path and control on-board I/O based on the electronic data. Through DSP technology integration, the PCI-8254/8258 further provides velocity planning, trajectory smoothing, and automatic point-feeding to perform 2D laser-table (X-Y table) movement precisely and smoothly.