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laser cutting acrylic question

petepaz

petepaz

New Member
haven't had our laser long so new to using it. we have been cutting mostly plywood for our steel rule dies but we also cut acrylic. i am starting to notice some of the acrylic you can purchase has this warning in the spec sheet- THE PRODUCT IS A COMBUSTIBLE THERMOPLASTIC RESIN, BURNS VIGOROUSLYWITH INTENSE HEAT.
has anyone one had an issue with this? a lot of the acrylic we cut is sent to use by our customers and we just cut it with no problem. just wondering if there are any dangers i need to look out for? do we have to make sure we only use certain brands/types of acrylic?
 
Baz

Baz

New Member
As long as you have air assist as you are cutting you should have no problem.
I cut extruded and cast acrylic (Plexiglass) and both work just fine.
Although the cast acrylic is best for a smoother cut/finish, extruded works great.

Don't put Lexan in your laser! Then you will see sparks and flares :covereyes:
 
K

keithd

New Member
petepaz said:
haven't had our laser long so new to using it. we have been cutting mostly plywood for our steel rule dies but we also cut acrylic. i am starting to notice some of the acrylic you can purchase has this warning in the spec sheet- THE PRODUCT IS A COMBUSTIBLE THERMOPLASTIC RESIN, BURNS VIGOROUSLYWITH INTENSE HEAT.
has anyone one had an issue with this? a lot of the acrylic we cut is sent to use by our customers and we just cut it with no problem. just wondering if there are any dangers i need to look out for? do we have to make sure we only use certain brands/types of acrylic?
Click to expand...

As long as you are monitoring the laser while cutting, you shouldn't have any major problems. Especially if you have some water or a fire extinguisher nearby to take care of any flareups.

I do know a guy though that had small pieces of molten acrylic falling and getting lodged in his honeycomb table as he cut out a design. By the time he realized it was still burning the table had melted on one side.
 
F

fixtureman

New Member
I have air assist and I had a piece of acrylic catch fire. I caught it right away and sprayed it with the water bottle I have next to the laser
 
J

jayselway

New Member
We cut acrylic all the time. The only time I've ever had a fire was from cutting 1" thick acrylic. It was the aluminum honeycomb that caught fire (mostly due to residue build up). It only burned for like 20 seconds before I put it out with some compressed air.
 
J

jrsc

New Member
Same thing here. Only fire I had was cutting though 1" in a single pass. It burned pretty good because I didn't notice it right away. It was a big piece of acrylic and had a pretty good flame. I pulled it out of the machine by grabbing the non burning part and it was hard to get it to stop burning. I ended up tossing it outside because we had a door right next to our laser. Didn't hurt the machine at all though. Just be careful and watch it if going really slow at a really high power. Thin stuff always cuts no problem.
 
U

unmateria

New Member
jrsc said:
Same thing here. Only fire I had was cutting though 1" in a single pass. It burned pretty good because I didn't notice it right away. It was a big piece of acrylic and had a pretty good flame. I pulled it out of the machine by grabbing the non burning part and it was hard to get it to stop burning. I ended up tossing it outside because we had a door right next to our laser. Didn't hurt the machine at all though. Just be careful and watch it if going really slow at a really high power. Thin stuff always cuts no problem.
Click to expand...
We always put 0.3mm holes to sustain the pieces being cuted and we remove almost bars from the table (the fires ocur when láser reflect on bars).

I always laminate the back of acrylics with vinyl Transfer paper (specially 10mm ones) and i soak It with water before cut. That prevent fire very well and especially smoke stains on the material being cutted.

Im developing a little system with a solenoid valvle to fire cheap CO2 cartdriges on the Air tube when a fire fingerprint is detected. I Hope to have It finished (and OpenSource) soon

Enviado desde mi Nexus 6 mediante Tapatalk
 
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