Tobacco Asia

46 tobaccoasia Issue 3, 2023 May / June "Light" cigarettes are increasingly falling out of fa- vor these days. But, micro perforating tipping pa- pers is still a very common practice in the industry for "mild" brands, the microscopic holes provid- ing ventilation to help diffuse inhaled smoke. In the (very) old days, those prick holes often were achieved by mechanical punching. It was a cum- bersome, wasteful, and more often than not inac- curate procedure. Today, micro perforations are of course handled through technologically advanced, easy to control, and extraordinarily fast and pre- cise lasers, most commonly of the CO2 (carbon dioxide) gas type. However, slowing demand has seen many providers drop out of this highly spe- cialized equipment segment altogether. Presently, there are only a small handful of them left. MLT, Germany: Last of its kind in Europe One of these is German outfit Micro Laser Tech- nology GmbH, or "MLT" for short. While a company spokesperson recently described the firm to Tobacco Asia as "the world's last supplier of high-quality laser perforation equipment to the tobacco industry," this notion is not entirely cor- rect. After all, there still are several Chinese com- panies around serving this niche market. Perhaps the MLT spokesperson meant to say, "the last in Europe." Founded at the turn of the millennium, MLT is nevertheless considered a market leader in the field. As such, the company developed its MLP range of laser perforation equipment specifically for cigarette manufacturing. The most popular MLP Micro Perforating Tipping Paper and HNB Hollow Tubes When it comes to micro perforating tipping papers or HNB hollow tubes, high-powered laser equipment is the method of choice in modern tobacco manufacturing. By Thomas Schmid The MLP-50. Credit: MLT GmbH

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