High speed laser perforation of cigarette tipping paper

A system for controlling a process for perforating a flexible web of cigarette tipping paper, comprising:

• a supply spindle of the flexible web of paper, said supply spindle being mounted for powered angular rotation at variable speed;
• a take-up spindle for receiving a portion of the flexible web of paper from the supply spindle, said take-up spindle being mounted for powered angular rotation at variable speed;
• a variable-power laser beam generator;
• at least one multi-faceted mirror positioned in the path of a laser beam emitted from said laser beam generator, said at least one multi-faceted mirror being driven by a drive unit to rotate, and said at least one rotating multi-faceted mirror dividing said laser beam into a plurality of output beams that are scanned across additional downstream optics and focused to burn a plurality of holes in said flexible web of paper;
• and
• a control device including sensors and an output that controls feeding speed of the flexible web of paper by controlling the angular rotation speed of said supply spindle and said take-up spindle, controls said drive unit to rotate said multi-faceted mirror, and varies the level of power supplied to said laser beam generator between multiple levels greater than zero, as a function of the feeding speed of the flexible web of paper in response to sensor inputs and control output.