OUGD504: Design Production - Design for Print Laser Cut Induction

Today I went to a laser cut induction with some other members of the course. I have never been introduced to laser cut before so I was very excited to learn about it and already had an idea in mind to put my new skills to the test.

To start the session we were briefed on the health and safety measures in the print room and then we were introduced to what laser cut is and how it works. We were shown a piece of acrylic with four different types of cutting:

• Cut through
• Kiss cut
• Engrave
• Raster

We were going to try out all of these techniques with a test design on a piece of MDF 3mm. 

After we were shown the different styles we were then shown how the laser cuts through material. There are a few steps which are essential for a good cut:

• There must be a 12mm gap between the laser and the material 

To make sure this is correct there is a piece of wood which is 12mm thick, this is used to measure the gap. The laser head also moves up and down to compensate for different materials. 

• Material

To get the machine to recognise the size of the material which is to be cut the control panel allows the laser to be moved manually. You must place the laser in the top left hand corner of the machine then the  bottom right hand corner. The machine will recognise the size of the material and apply the design to it.

•  Control pannel

The controls for the laser cutter are very simple and easy to remember. 

I made several notes during the session which I will use for reference in further sessions.

12mm between laser and material

Lowest left hand corner first then enter

Top right corner second them enter

Software ethos

Password - click ok

Four cut effects:

Cut through

Engrave

Kiss cut

Raster

Different colours which apply to different kinds of cuts

No cut is for layout lines - it will ignore it

To get raster - tool bar - object properties - menu opens - right hand tab - engraving properties - check box enable engraving - tick - apply - ok 

Before sending something to cut the computer needs to know what material it is cutting

Tool bar - output - material manager - setup - material - find material in drop down menu - ok 

Output - cut design - material manager - check the material - if it wrong we have to cancel and go back to previous step - send to cutter 

A1 is the biggest realistically

Can put material inside and pull in through the hole in the front of the machine 

When it is finished it will come back to the bottom left corner

To get dust off acrylic use the Hoover

For cutting illustrator files: open file in ethos - open new page - laser effect option - copy the design over for the different cuts

Raster based images

Insert image button - open file - place it on page - click on shape - object properties - tick top box - scan line resolution - 0.1 - grey levels - negative - apply it will change to grey scale 

The hand button will pause a job  

 My experiment

 I enjoyed this workshop very much and plan to make good use of it in the future.

Adding an image to the material with different depth of cut.