Laser illumination device for illuminating a line or a strip-like area

The laser assembly, to illuminate line/strip zones (S) of sheet materials (B) with a high lighting intensity, has two rod lenses (4,6) in an orthogonal layout to each other at the outlet from a diode laser (2). The lenses have a low focal length compared to the gap between them. A laser beam spreader (L2) is between the two lenses, to focus a narrow line/strip zone at the second lens, at a large angle (alpha) to reduce the light density rapidly.