LaserPro’s parent company is GCC, known in the USA as GCC-America. Our distribution/dealership name is LaserProNA. GCC is the world’s largest manufacturer of sign plotters, laser cutters and laser engravers.

LaserPro has been in business since 1988. To succeed in today’s competitive business world, we realize that a corporation must be able to build on its past experience, take hold of its present opportunities and reach out for its future vision. Therefore, on Dec. 1, 1988, GCC was founded with an objective to research and develop innovative laser cutter products, and manufacture these products to perfection.

HUGE! With office, factory, warehouse and distribution center locations throughout the world (Southern California, USA • Nan Kong, Taipei, Taiwan • HsiChih, Taipei Hsien • Frankfurt, Germany • Moerbijk, Netherlands • Shanghai, China) 200 global distributors with more than 300+ dealers in 51 countries! We have established the largest laser engraver & cutter manufacturing business in the world. In over 19 years we are proud to have grown to a nearly $250 million dollar company proudly selling the Number #1 laser engraver globally. 87 engineers (6 with Doctorates and 12 with Bachelors Degrees) having 79 patents pending and 60 actual patents owned ensures we will maintain the claim of “The Best Laser Engraver EVER Made!”

TAIWAN. With its initial factory set up in Nan Kong, Taipei. Taiwan. Soon after moved the factory and corporate headquarters, to Hsi Chih, Taipei Hsien, Taiwan with an area of over 32,000 square feet. Recently remodeled and expanded the factory to over 70,000 square feet.

GCC uses laser tubes manufactured by both Coherent/Deos of Santa Clara, CA and Synrad of Mukilteo, WA.

YES. With claim to being the ONLY stocking warehouse in the laser engraving industry, we have a facility located in Southern California that not only has a publicly accessible showroom, but also stocks laser engravers, accessories, peripherals and parts.
LaserPro Engraver/Cutter FAQ’s

The most complete family of laser engravers on the market and the most powerful software driver available. Standard and/or Unique features include: Auto Focus, Air Assist, Pass-thru Ability, True 3D Engraving, Automatic Vector Sorting, Intelligent Rubber Stamp Engraving, Multiple or single job selection, Linear Motion DC servo Control System, Upgrade-able Laser Tubes, Thickest Cutting in a Single Pass and the Industry’s Longest Warranty,. NOTE: These are features that the others MAY HAVE but at a price, ours is included at no charge! Find out why LaserPro can confidently and boldly state,” The Best Laser Engraver EVER Made!”

NO. We use a driver written by our software engineers to simulate a printer driver. Your computer will not know the difference between your inkjet printer, laserjet printer or LaserPro Engraver. As far as your computer is concerned you are simply printing your graphic image/document. Your computer has no idea it is powering a state of the art, highly technologically advanced laser engraver.

Compatible with most Windows-based software. Because we have written our own “print” driver you can use virtually any software application you so desire. Although the Windows PC world has standardized on CorelDRAW as the graphics application of choice, you can use virtually any software program you like. We highly recommend an application that is vector based to take full advantage of our Laser Engraver and all the features it offers. These applications can include; CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, Deneba Canvas, Micrografx Designer, and of course you can also utilize various CAD programs that have 100% compatibility with the industry standard AutoCAD, such as, DesignCAD, TuboCAD, etc.

The Spirit GX, and Explorer II are adjustable from 0.1% to 100% speed of 80 inches/second (IPS). The Spirit, and Spirit GE series are adjustable from 0.1% to 100% speed of 60 inches/second (IPS). The Venus is adjustable from 0.02% to 100% speed of 20 inches/second and the Gaia is adjustable from 0.1% to 100% of 23.6 inches/second.

IPS Speed is virtually a meaningless value. If this value was indeed a variable measurement of speed then one would expect a machine that travels at 150 IPS to be able to travel back and forth 6 times on a 25″ table. No machine is this industry can even do 2 passes in 1 second, let alone 6! A true indication of speed is throughput and engraving quality. Some machines in this industry can run fast, but not maintain their quality they produced at slower speeds. All LaserPro models are designed to be run at 100% Speed, with no sacrifice of quality, or additional wear or stress on the motion system .

Average life is 20,000 – 35,000 hours of use. That amounts to 8 hours a day at 100% power, 7 days a week, for 7 years if the tube only last for 20,000 hours. GCC uses laser tubes manufactured by both Coherent/Deos of Santa Clara, CA and Synrad of Mukilteo, WA. In addition to our trust and faith in the reliability of the tubes we utilize in our LaserPro line of laser engravers/cutters we also offer the industry’s longest warranty: A full two (2) years on the laser tube.

YES. Once the laser tube has reached the end of its useful life, a gas recharge and system overall by the manufacturer will restore the laser to full power. Once serviced the tube should be good for years, and years more of service.

16mb or 32mb standard dependent upon model Using standard SIMM modules the LaserPro series of laser engravers/cutters can utilize 4mb, 16mb, 32mb & 64mb (32×2) SIMM modules and is upgrade-able to 64 megabytes. Multiple file mode saves up to 100 files.

YES The LaserPro line of laser engravers/cutters uses a highly rigid linear motion system that provides unparalleled strength and durability, with outstanding letter quality, and best of all… very little maintenance. A software comparison would be AutoCAD (linear) vs CorelDRAW (steps) in creating a “True” circle or “Simulated” circle.

AutoCad creates a true circle (“True” via circular & linear interpolation)
CorelDRAW creates many tiny lines to simulate a circle (“Simulated” via steps)

Although not much is needed to operate the laser the following four (4) items are a necessity. Also keep in mind you may already have the necessary components in place.

Exhaust Blower … One with sufficient CFM, at least 500 on up. The more CFM the better. This is what exhausts the vaporized material outdoors that the laser beam creates as it laser engravers/cuts.
Compressor … Such as air-brush type to attach to the standard air assist on the LaserPro line of engravers/cutters.
Windows-based Computer … Necessary to run your vector based application in order to send jobs to the laser engraver/cutter
CorelDRAW! v11 or better … Although you can use most well-written applications we recommend Corel as it is easy to learn, an industry standard and relatively inexpensive

YES! From our smallest laser to our largest laser and all the models in between. We have designed our LaserPro engravers to utilize the same driver so all the capabilities you find in the software for our flagship Explorer and Mercury are utilized in the Venus up to the Neptune. From Rubber stamp/seal engraving, to 3D engraving, to raster engraving, to vector cutting.

YES! See above. We have written our software driver to drive all of our LaserPro family of laser engravers the same, from Rubber stamp/seal engraving, to True 3D engraving, to raster engraving, to vector cutting. Dont think that buying the desktop model limits your capabilities other than power and size. Software wise you can do the same as the Mercury or even the Neptune.

NO. Unfortunately without HIGH wattage units (400+ watts) no CO2 laser will engrave or cut into this type of metal. CO2 lasers use a wave frequency that allows the lasering of virtually any material (see below) with the exception of raw metals. Only anodized or coated metal can be engraved by CO2 lasers. Although, recently a company by the name of Thermark and another Cerdec have developed a solution that when used according to the manufacturer guidelines generates a chemical reaction crystallizes their “paste” which creates solid black engraving on uncoated metals. This procedure when done correctly is extremely durable and under testing has withstood military lubricants, salt water spray, high heat and abrasion tests.

To date marks have been made on:
Aluminum
Brass
Chromed Steel
Copper
Lead-coated Steel
Stainless Steel
Tin
Titanium
Tungsten Carbide

The solution is also expected to work on:

Carbide
Gold
Niobium
Palladium
Pewter
Platinum
Silver
Tantalum

Virtually any materials except unprocessed metals (see above) and substances that are too heat sensitive, such as foam. Other than that the materials the LaserPro laser engraver/cutter can etch into and/or vector cut are nearly limitless. Here is a brief list of materials that have been proven to work well (you may come up with more).

Acrylic
Anodized Aluminum
Carbide
Ceramic Substrates
Cloth
Coated Metals
Composites
Delrin
Fabrics
Fiberglass
Foam

Glass
Kevlar
Laminated Plastics
Leather
Marble
Masonite
Matte Board
Melamine
Mylar
Nylon
Paper

Painted Metals
Plastics
Polycarbonate
Polyester
Pressboard
Rubber
Silicon
Stone
Styrene
Veneer
Wood

Depending on model up to 1″ With 87 engineers we have developed the mostefficient control of a motion assembly in the entire laser industry. A 30 watt tube is still a 30 watt tube regardless of whose machine it is installed in. Yet we are the onlylaser engraver/cutter that can control the motion to a point that allows us to cut thicker materials than anyone elses comparable laser tube wattage. Following are examples of what our various wattage lasers can cut through in a single passsuccessfully.

12 watts … 1/4″ (quarter inch) thick acrylic
30 watts … 1/2″ (half inch) thick acrylic
60 watts … 3/4″ (three quarter inch) thick acrylic
100 watts … 1″ (one inch) thick acrylic

Depending on the manufactured process of the acrylic these numbers can actually grow in thickness. NOTE: With out new “Enhanced Vector” mode we can now cut thicker materials than listed above. Add 1/8″ to 1/4″ to the above thickness to get a guideline of what our new “Enhanced Vector” is capable of producing.

YES! It is possible to laser cut ADA tactile letters and graphics. In addition the laser can very accurately create the hole for an acrylic ‘”raster” to be later inserted. This is a patented process and requires a License to sell the ADA/Raster signage. For information go to our Industry Supplier search engine on our home page. Look under “Raster Braille License” to find a dealer to purchase a license to add ADA Signage to your product offerings.

125 – 1000 DPI (dependent upon model). The Explorer and Spirit Series are configured for 125, 250, 300, 380, 500, 600, 760 and 1000 DPI, while the Venus Series has resolution capabilities of 200, 250, 300, 500, 600 and 1000 You must always factor in the material being used, the time increase to engrave at 500 DPI (default) as opposed to 1000 DPI most often is not justified. This increase in resolution will significantly increase your engraving time and may not be visibly noticeable on most materials. Trial and error are the only way to determine the lowest resolution to produce the most acceptable results at the fastest speed. Just remember, “Time is Money”, so the faster you finish a project the more you make per project.

NO! From our smallest laser to our largest laser and all the models in between. We have designed our LaserPro engravers to utilize the same driver so all the capabilities you find in the software for our flagship Explorer and Mercury are utilized in the Venus up to the Neptune. From Rubber stamp/seal engraving, to 3D engraving, to raster engraving, to vector cutting.

Better engraving & cutting effect. The air assist kit is a standard component that comes with the LaserPro family of laser engravers/cutters. In conjunction with optional air compressor, the air assist can provides a much better engraving & cutting effect, as it will blow away vaporized particles and prevent fire due to overheating.

Vector cutting. The cutting table, also known as a honeycomb table, is especially useful for vector cutting applications/projects. The space between materials and working table, gapped by the cutting table, allows heat and smoke to be disbursed and vented out which may otherwise cause a bad cutting effect. It basically lifts the material being vector cut from the table so the laser beam will not reflect back into the bottom of the material off the table.

The maximum diameter and length of the to-be-engraved object is 6.5″ (165mm) and 17.75″(450mm) respectively. Its maximum weight should not exceed 15.5lbs (7kg).

Essentially any computer system purchased within the last couple of years is sufficient to operate the LaserPro. The newer, the better obviously, but simply ensure that whatever your chosen operating system is that the computer can efficiently run the OS, at that point your graphic software should also run well. The following is a basic starting point but an easy rule of thumb to remember is faster and larger is always better and of course you can never have enough RAM. Microprocessor: Pentium (The faster the better) RAM: 512 MB (The more the better) Hard Drive: 40 GB (The larger the better) Monitor: 17” SVGA Color (The larger the better) CDROM: 32x Drive (The faster the better) Scanner: HP, Epson, Canon, etc. (All newer scanners produce sufficient quality) Pointing Device: Mouse or Tablet (Tablets provide far more control over mice when specific location positioning of cursor is required)

Operating System: 32-bit Windows: Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Vista (Ensure all patches and updates are installed)

the following two components are not an option but a necessity. You MUST have an exhaust/blower in order to catch the debris that the laser creates when vaporizing different materials and expel it outdoors. Because we include the Air Assist as standard on ALL our lasers you only require a compressor. It is highly recommended LaserPro owners utilize the air assist for quality and safety. Exhaust/blower system With the addition of two (2) 4″ dryer hoses, simply plug in and run your LaserPro. One hose connects to the LaserPro output to the blower input, the other to the blower output to your outdoor ventilation connection. Mini Air Compressor If you currently own a compressor, there is no need for a mini-compressor. You can remove the LaserPro air hose connector/air flow adjustment valve and replace with a standard compressor quick connect. With this configuration you will need to adjust your air flow directly from the compressor itself.

Operation and maintenance of LaserPro engravers/cutters can be learned literally within a half-hour. Our systems are really that simple. Learning the driver will take an addition 30 minutes, so essentially you can be up and running with a LaserPro within an hour. The key to professional looking and purchase worthy final products is learning the graphics software. Learning software can take weeks, months, even years to master so it is essential to have industry standard software where support is virtually located anywhere online or in your own backyard. So the following software is highly recommended to enable your creative juices to flow and limit the learning curve to as short as possible.

CorelDRAW! Version 11 is the lowest version recommended. CorelDRAW is simple, versatile, powerful and with excellent positioning and text features. CorelDRAW is also the worldwide standard for vector graphics.

PhotoGrav If you are planning on lasering any type of digital or scanned images on any type of material this is a wise investment. The simple one-touch processing works extremely well to produce photo quality images on most materials.

EngravePro A new software package that bridges the gap between professional engravers and their professional graphics software… Effortlessly create matrixes for engraving and serialization.

4 items Maintaining the LaserPro is extremely simple and only takes a few minutes a day. Regular cleaning of the railings to allow rollers to move smoothly, belts to ensure no particles obstruct the belts alignment and optics (mirrors and lense) kept clean and spotless are all that is required to keep your LaserPro running at peak performance. The following is all that is necessary to maintain your LaserPro. Denatured Alcohol: To wipe down rails & belts for smooth operation White Lithium Grease: To grease down lead screws for smooth operation Lint Free Rags: For general cleaning of rails, belts, table, enclosure, etc. 409 or similar: For general cleaning of rails, belts, table, enclosure, etc.

Two (2) year warranty. The LaserPro engravers/cutters are covered with a two (2) year warranty bumper to bumper, including the laser tube. Also once your a customer of LaserPro, your always a customer of LaserPro and we will take care of you and do what it takes to keep you satisfied, productive and profitable. Note: Consumables such as Lights, Optics [mirrors and lens] are considered consumable items on the LaserPro line of engravers/cutters and as such is covered under warranty for only a 90 day period.

Compare the LaserPro warranty to another model!

Easily done! We are so confident with our equipments durability and reliability that we stand behind our lasers longer than anyone in the industry. Although we have a two (2) year warranty on all of our LaserPro models, we like to think of ourselves along the same line as the venerable Maytag appliance. “Its great to have that warranty, but its even better to never have to use it!” This is the confidence we have in our equipment.

Once a customer of LaserPro, always a customer of LaserPro. Your LaserPro sales rep provides lifetime technical support. Not only will you have access to your sales rep for quick and dirty support for your laser, but you have access to our Southern California staffed and fully stocked warehouse with technicians on hand and of course this website. Through LaserProNA.com we support everyday issues, from engraving, techniques, photographs, Windows, CorelDRAW, etc.

YES Most updates/upgrades can easily be done by the customer in the field, such as, LCD upgrade, firmware upgrade, RAM upgrade, lens upgrade, etc. Laser tubes must be recharged by the manufacturer via our technical staff. When that time comes to make an upgrade either contact your sales rep, email us here [email protected] and we will guide you in the right direction and/or method in which to perform your needed upgrade.

Stepper motors basically mean a motor that moves x amount of steps per inch. In other words assuming 400 steps equals an inch then the motor literally must produce 400 clicks to move an inch. So when a laser engraver that is stepper controlled is told to move down 1 inch and left 1 inch from home position it is basically going to click 400 times down and 400 times to the left from its home location. NOTE: It must be at home position for this to happen accurately. Servo control basically means a motor that moves to a specific coordinate. In other words when your computer tells our servo controlled LaserPro engravers/cutters to move 1 inch down and 1 inch over from home position the control unit goes exactly there based on a coordinate location, i.e., x=1000/y=1000, irregardless of where the laser engraver head is currently located. In a nutshell if you move/bump/nudge a stepper driven laser engraver you have ruined your engraving material and must start from scratch. With our servo controlled laser engraving technology you can literally begin anywhere you want on the table, pause your current job and move the head to check your work and when you resume the laser always knows exactly where it is so it will always begin at the correct location and always knows where it was so as to continue on where it left off. A far superior technology.

LaserPro engravers/cutters are FCC (ID# LO4GRC-LASER) and CE (EMC) approved. CDRH (Center for Devices and Radio logical Health) Class 3a is under way.

Our equipment is designed to be safe even with the lid open, the door open or the panel removed. Our equipment has safety switches that automatically prevent the laser tube from firing when these items are opened. In order to operate the machine with these items opened the customer must consciously defeat the switches themselves, hence preventing any type of accidents from occuring. Working glasses or goggles are recommended when maintaining the machine, but not necessary as you should never maintain the machine while on, especially while running.

The air blowers power of exhaustion system provided by GCC is 0.75kw with airflow 13/15 CMM (50Hz/60Hz). It is recommended to pipe the exhaust end of the filter out of working room.

YES! Windows 2000, WIndows XP, and Widows Vista are all appropriate choices, however, please insure that the OS you choose to use is running in 32 Bit mode. The LaserPro driver, as with most avaliable applications, currenlty will not operate in the 64 bit enviroment. Our software engineers have been diligently working on a Windows Vista compliant driver. If you choose to use Windows Vista please be sure to install the most currect Driver and Firmware available on this site in the Support section of the model machine you have.

Raster images are composed of dots & Vector images are composes of lines. Raster, or bitmapped, graphics produce images as grids of individually defined pixels Vector graphics produce images using mathematically generated points, lines, and shapes. The clean lines and smooth curves of vector graphics make them an obvious choice for logos, drawings, and other artwork that will appear in print, particularly with lasers. Also, the use of mathematical equations enables vector graphics to be scaled and manipulated repeatedly to virtually any size without distortion.

NO! As of yet we don’t have enough demand to write a Macintosh version of our software driver. If the market changes and the demand increases then our software engineers will seriously consider adding a Macintosh compliant driver to our choice of LaserPro drivers.

Although there are numerous acronyms you may encounter in your laser engraver/cutter research the following are the most common.

QSM … Quality Speed Mode (exclusive to LaserPro)
LASER … Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
CO2 … Carbon Dioxide
AC … Alternating Current
DC … Direct Current
LCD … Liquid Crystal Display
lb … Pound
kg … Kilogram
LPT … Line PrinTer
Comm … Communications
USB … Universal Serial Bus
AMP … Ampere
V … Volt
mm …Millimeter
SIMM … Single In-Line Memory Modules
MB … MegaByte
dpi … Dots Per Inch
ppi … Pulses Per Inch
3D … Three Dimensional
TM … TradeMark
© … Copyright