Atomik Laser

How does our laser cutting work

There are two type of lasers used for engraving and cutting, and each has their own benefits suited to particular materials and engraving. Most acrylic laser cutting and engraving machines work using a glass or metal tube of CO2 (carbon dioxide) gas. The gas inside is ionised by high voltage, creating a glow, like a neon light. An Infra Red (invisible) part of this light reflects back and forth between two mirrors, increasing in strength. The powerful light is tightly focussed into a 2mm beam, and exits one side of the tube. More mirrors guide the beam through a mechanical gantry, and the last mirror directs the 2mm beam down through a focussing lens. This lens makes the beam thinner, down to 0.2mm, and it is this fine beam that cuts through many materials. The moving gantry system is precisely controlled like a an xy graph plotter, and the coordinates of a digital drawing are followed at correct speeds. The power and timing of the laser are also controlled to cut the materials perfectly. The physical gantry, the mirrors, and lens are all kept precisely in alignment, and the best quality cutting and engraving is achieved.
The other type of laser is called a Fiber Laser, where the actual cutting light beam is also invisible. Fiber lasers create the light power inside a coiled up long glass fiber, and operate in a slightly different wavelength. Smaller powers can fine engrave very fast, and larger ones can cut steel easily.

For laser engraving with CO2 lasers - the focussed laser point is "raster" scanned, like a printer, and the laser is pulsed at high speed, createing burned, or vaporised dots. After scanning and moving over the material being engraved, the result is similar to conventional printing, where an image is created. Creating an raster image from fine dots, and moving the gantry across the material slowly can take some time. The other type of laser for fine engraving is called the Fiber Laser , instead of moving a physical large gantry across the material, smaller mirrors projects the laser beam onto the material from above. They can move much faster, and we use this for bulk fast, and fine engraving. You will already see type of engraving on many products, into steel, and plastics - like ipods, cell phones, battery chargers and packs, as each part can be marked quickly with a lot of very small details - text, and logos, and including individual serial numbering of products, tags etc.

Quality and finishing.

We can cut, and engrave almost anything, here are some examples:

Plywood - thin less than 10mm, cuts leaving a usual black or brown edge.
Plywood - thicker, greater than 10mm may cut, but the heat can cause charring - so prefer to use our CNC router.
MDF - Medium Density Fiberboard - all types very clean and accurate, with minimal smoke residue.
Leather - clean cut but black burnt edge, can be sanded, and cleaned ok.
Leather - surface engraves, for logos, text, and branding marks very well.
Paper and Card Board - all types cut well, leaves a fine brown edge, but cleaned off easily.
Fiberglass - G10 etc, (non copper, clad) thin only lessa than 1mm lasercuts fine leaving black edge.
PCB - Printed Circuit Boards - Same as Fiberglass, G10. Fabrics - most synthetic (polyester, etc) fabrics will lasercut very cleanly, sealing the edge as it cuts.
Foam - Neoprene, (for gaskets, anti slip mats, etc) lasercuts well.
Foam - Poly Urethane - polyurethane laser cuts well. HMWPE - less than 6mm (polyethylene) nylon, teflon, all cut but with varying degress of re-welding.
HMWPE - greater than 6mm (polyethylene) nylon, teflon is better CNC cut on our router with very good finish.
Styrene, clean clear cut, with some fine melt along edge, can be scraped clean flat for gluing/laminating/modelling.
Polycarbonate - up to 2mm cuts clean and usually clear, sometimes faint yellow/brown edge.
Polycarbonate - over 3mm thick, will cut, but edges are blacker. Can be sanded to a clean and clear edge.
Polypropylene - clean clear cut, some waxy like residues on edge, perfect for stencils, as non stick.
Acrylic - the most popular lasercut product - cuts clean and clear.
Rubber - thin foam rubber only - clean cut, black dust to remove.
Rubber - thin nitrile (white) - clean cut, and clear, no burning.
Rubber - thicker and fiber reinforced can be CNC routercut.

If you would like us to try cutting, or engraving something different, or an unknown material, we would prefer to do a test cut on a small area, or on seperate sample first to determine specific cutting parameters.
There are a lot of material factors which can change cutting and engraving quality.