Ezi Sign and Printers
28-07-2019
Laser Cutting
Laser cutting is the process of cutting materials from a design given by a graphic design software like CorelDarw, Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, etc. to a laser cutting machine. Different materials can be cut by laser such as Acrylics or metals. However, the Trotec SP 3000 at Ezi Sign and Printers is mainly used to cut through acrylic materials. This laser cutting machine is based on CO2 that uses a high-power laser to melt, burn and vaporize the material to complete the cut process.
The industrial laser cutting machines, such as the Trotec SP 3000 used at Ezi Sign and Printers, typically have a motion control system and follow the CNC pattern for cutting the material. The laser beam produced inside the laser head and then directed at the piece of material. As the CNC pattern is followed, the areas of material that need to be cut are burned and vaporized so a clean, nicely cut and high-quality edge is produced. The quality and precision of laser cutting machines are so much high that they are very suitable for industrial purposes.
The high accuracy with excellently cut edges are the main reason behind using laser for industrial cutting purposes . However, the usage of laser cutting is not limited to the industrial purposes, but they can also be used for personal or other usages.
For example, you can even use a laser cutting machine to make a nicely designed piece of artwork for yourself. The following figure shows a birthday gift to a 6 years old boy that is just a birthday wish cut by laser on acrylic.
To get into more details about laser, we can spend a little bit of time explaining what laser is. The word laser is the abbreviation for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Laser is a device that discharges a strong beam of monochromic light via the optical amplification process . This discharge of light is usually according to the simulated emission of photons from atoms or molecules. The laser makes electrons to drop to a lower state of energy and, consequently, emit photons with the exact same wavelength.
Among different laser types, the CO2 laser cutting machines is done by using a mixed laser of carbon dioxide. The Trotec SP3000 used as Ezi Sign and Printers is also a CO2 laser cutter built for signage and digital printing industries and is mostly used to cut acrylic materials.
At first step, we use a standard graphic design software like CorelDraw or Photoshop to design a nice piece of artwork. If you have a design by yourself, you can always send your own design. One important point to note is that all pieces of artwork need to be connected together. For example, if you want to write your initials inside a circle, you need to make sure all letters are connected to each other and letters are connected to the circle. Another important point is about tiny connecting edges. Make sure the connecting edges of letters are at least 5 millimeters, so pieces are not separated after cut by laser.
Once we prepare the artwork, we double check it with the customer to get their final input about the design. In case you have sent your own design, we make sure edges are all connected and edges are not very tiny so the quality of final artwork is achieved. After that, it is the time to send the designed artwork to the laser cutting machine, but, we need to prepare the material before starting the laser cutting process.
All different sort of materials can be used for cutting by laser machine; however, we usually use acrylic. There can be different sort of acrylics materials like transparent, gold, etc. that you can choose from.
After laying down the material on the working area of laser cutting machine, we configure the power of laser, its frequency and cut speed so the highest possible quality of artwork can be produced. Now it is all set to send the artwork from software to the laser cutting machine and have the cutting process begin.
After configuring software settings, we send the design to the laser cutting device and the process starts. Usually, an operator is managing the cutting process to make sure the material is cut correctly. The machine has high safety, so operators monitor the cutting process from a distance far from the laser head. Anyhow, if any operator is accidentally getting close to the laser bed, the machine is automatically stopped. Depending on the design, it make take a few minutes, more or less, until the cutting process is complete and your valuable piece of artwork is ready.
