Cericom is a specialist in laser machines for glass processing. The company has more than 20 years of experience in this technology and this market. As part of the Lisec-Group, Cericom offers a worldwide sales and service-network.
Interview with Dipl.-Phys. Andreas Wienkamp, Head of Technology and Innovation at Cericom.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Andreas Wienkamp: cericom develops and manufactures laser systems for the following applications:
- 3D Interior Engraving (ceri3D): Ideal for non-tempered glass, enables fascinating three-dimensional decorations inside glass such as tabletops, glass furniture, lights and 3D crystals.
- CO2 laser surface treatment (cerilas): Matting, removing of lacquer and mirror coatings, as well as transferring graphics and photos to glass surfaces.
- Laser drilling and cutting of glass panels (cericut): Precise drilling and cutting for products such as bathroom mirrors, room dividers, glass doors and furniture. Complex shapes and drill holes are possible.
- Bird-friendly glass branded “ceribird” produced with cericom laser machines and which makes glass safe for birds. A laser structure on the outside of the glass makes the glass for birds visible and thus avoids collisions caused by reflections and transparency of windows and glass-facades.
- Removal and structuring of glass coatings (“cericlean”) for the production of radio-transparent glasses, heating- and alarm-glass. Various coatings, such as paint, mirror coatings, baked or unbaked enamel, LowE coatings, or conductive coatings, can be accurately removed and structured.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
A.W: Large format vertical laser machine c-vertica to produce bird-friendly glass branded “ceribird”. The c-vertica machine can be equipped with up to 4 laser-heads and thus offers a production capacity of up to 4 Mio. sqft per year.
Laser drilling and cutting of glass panels (cericut): Precise drilling and cutting of products such as glass-façades, room dividers, glass doors, bathroom mirrors and furniture. Complex shapes and drill holes are possible.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
A.W: cericom develops and manufactures vertical and horizontal laser machines for laser processing of small glasses in the millimeter-range up to the processing of raw formats up to 3,3 x 20 m. The same laser process can be realized on a horizontal or a vertical machine – depending on the customer’s needs. cericom laser machines can be operated as stand-alone – optional with a glass magazine carriage for automatic operation – or as part of a production line.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
A.W: Conventional technologies are more and more replaced by laser processes. The benefits of the cericom laser machines are:
- no waste and maintenance as with sandblasting.
- a quality that is difficult or impossible to achieve with conventional technology
- no consumables
- no tools
- little energy required
- no water required and thus no water treatment
- no need for finishing processes (grinding, polishing, etc.)
- processes such as drilling, cutting and edge finishing can be performed on one single machine.
When using laser machines for glass frosting with cericom’s cerilas, there is no need for intermediate steps such as creating and applying plotter foils, as the motif is transferred directly from the computer to the glass. The laser is mainly used for complicated designs (e.g. lettering) or designs with grayscale or photographic motifs. Laser-matted glass surfaces do not need to be tempered – but they can be. Especially the laser frosting of glass will be used more and more for the production of bird-friendly glass.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
A.W: More and more glass processing is done by laser – no matter whether we talk about technical glasses or glass for buildings and interior design. The main advantages of cericom laser machines are cost-effectiveness, durability and the most ecological production process.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
A.W: The development processes in the areas of drilling and cutting are meeting with great interest from customers and are therefore being consistently pursued. The same applies to glass coding/marking, especially with regard to retrofitting and last not least is there a steep development of the bird-friendly glass market in North America. Cericom offers multi-head laser machines with an annual output of more than 4 Mio. sqft of bird-friendly glass.