Newsletter 121: Cutting Polyester Foam, Cutting Aluminized Paper, Cutting Stainless Steel

SYNRAD, INC. - http://www.synrad.com
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Issue 121


Cutting Polyester Foam	Cutting Reinforced Aluminized Paper	Cutting Stainless Steel Plates

SYNRAD's sealed CO₂ lasers are used in a variety of industrial processes including cutting, welding, drilling, and marking. This news brief showcases some of the interesting materials and products that are processed daily by Synrad's line of CO₂ lasers and marking heads.

Cutting Polyester Foam

This application calls for cutting circular gaskets out of a sheet of 1.13 mm (0.0445”) thick polyester foam. Although this application could be run on a XY table, the customer chose to use a Synrad FH Series marking head and WinMark Pro laser marking software because of the FH head’s position accuracy (0.02 mm, or 0.0007”, with the 125HP lens) and WinMark Pro’s ease of use.

To create the cut pattern in WinMark, we first selected a 125HP lens and then opened a new mark file. Using the Circle tool, we created a Circle object (with newer versions of WinMark, hold the Shift key down while dragging the cursor to constrain the object to a circle instead of an ellipse). Under the Objects menu, click Transformations… and specify an exact diameter, in this case, 9.72 mm (0.3827”) for the outer circle.

Cut using 60 watts, the polyester foam
above produced clean cuts with no charring.

Repeat this procedure for the inner circle using a diameter of 7.10 mm (0.2794”). Use the Selection tool to drag a selection box around both objects, then click Align… (from the Objects menu). Align both circles to each other by their horizontal and vertical centerpoints. To cut more than one ring in a mark session, click the Format tab and set Array Columns/Array Rows and Column Spacing/Row Spacing to the desired values.

At a Power (duty cycle percentage) corresponding to 60 watts and a Velocity of 7 inches per second, we cut out each individual ring in a cycle time of 0.33 seconds. Note that inner and outer cut surfaces are cleanly cut and free from any discoloration or charring.

Cutting Reinforced Aluminized Paper

Reinforced aluminized paper—a kraft paper product reinforced with glass fiber and bonded to aluminized film—is commonly used in conjunction with blanket, batt, or rigid insulation as a vapor and/or radiant heat barrier.

Our XY beam delivery setup consisted of a 63.5 mm (2.5”) optic that provides a 100 micron (0.004”) focused spot with a 1.8 mm (0.07”) depth of focus. An air assist (CDA–Clean, Dry Air) at 20 PSI was delivered coaxially with the beam. At a power level of 60 watts, we achieved cut speeds of 3.05 meters per minute (120 inches/minute). The cut edge is clean and neither the aluminized film nor the kraft paper edges exhibit any signs of charring or discoloration.

This example of aluminized paper measures 0.09 mm (0.0035”) thick with the reinforcing glass fiber adding another 0.08 mm (0.0030”) of thickness where it runs between the paper and aluminized facing.

Cutting Stainless Steel Plates

Our Firestar f400 laser continues to build its reputation as the laser of choice for sub-kilowatt metal cutting applications. A beam quality (M² value) less than 1.2 and a TEM₀₀ mode quality combine to produce a near perfect beam capable of out-performing other higher power lasers.

With integrated RF, the f400 is easily mounted on a robotic arm or in a large-area flatbed cutting system—the only external connections required are for DC power, laser control, and cooling.

The photograph shows a section of 3 mm (0.113”) thick stainless steel plate that was cut using 400 watts. In this example, we used a 16.5 bar (240 PSI) nitrogen assist to eliminate oxidation of the cut edge and achieved a cut speed of 0.25 meters/minute (10 inches/minute). The cut face is clean with very slight underside dross.

In this application, a 3mm thick stainless steel
plate was cut using 400 watts. The cut face is
clean with very slight underside dross.

In applications where oxidation of the cut edge is not an issue, an oxygen assist gas increases cut speeds significantly. We obtained cut speeds of 1.8 m/min (70 IPM) using an oxygen assist set at 5.5 bar (80 PSI). In both cases, our XY cutting setup consisted of a 63.5 mm (2.5”) focusing lens, which provides a 100-micron (0.004”) spot size with a 1.8 mm (0.07”) depth of focus.

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