The protection against beam and non-beam hazards contributes often more than 10% to the operating costs of laser material processing systems. The decomposition products of laser cut polymers (laser-generated air contaminants: LGACs) have been found to be quite hazardous [1,2,3]. Hence, for laser users handling of emission is obligatory to assure safe laser operation.
However, the operation stability of air pollution control systems may be limited with respect to complex mixtures of gaseous LGACs. To use the advantages of the activated carbon systems and to face their inherent problems, an on-line monitoring unit based on the electronic nose concept has been developed and qualified in the frame of a joint research project. In this paper, the improvement of the efficiency of LGACs filtration systems is shown using electronic nose sensing. The on-line monitoring system provides an acceptable compromise of efficiency and costs (invest and running cost) compared to conventional detection technologies for volatile organic compounds [4].