Laser Cutting Practical
In this weeks blog, I will be documenting my experience with the first CPDD practical of the semester. For this practical, we were tasked with operating a laser cutter to cut a parametric design of our choice. Before we get started, the first thing that me and my group had to do was to create a standard operating procedure (SOP) before being allowed to carry out the practical. Below is the SOP that we had created before the practical and as a part of the requirements of this blog, I will be updating the SOP with improvements that I had learnt during the practical. Steps and words in WHITE are from the original SOP while those highlighted in RED are what I have added/improved upon based on what I have learnt during the practical.
Safety
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| Do not have anything around your neck (e.g., lanyard, necklace etc) as these objects might get caught in the laser cutting machine when closing it. |
Open the laser cutter cover fully and slowly. | Do not use materials that contains Chlorine or Foam. |
Ensure that the LED of both “L” and “R” button on the laser cutter machine is on before starting. | Do not cut or engrave metal materials. |
Ensure that the top cover is fully closed whilst the machine is operating. | Do not put your head into the laser cutter machine. |
Always monitor cutting during operation. | Do not slam the cover of the laser cutter machine when closing. |
If there is a small fire that does not extinguish by itself after a few seconds, stop the laser cutting process, open the lid and blow out the fire or remove material from laser cutter. | Do not assume that the LED of the laser cutter machine is faulty. |
If there is a huge fire, stop the laser cutting process, open the lid and use fire extinguisher. | Do not lean your body over the laser cutter when the machine is cutting. |
If material cannot be cut through, stop and check the focus lens as it might be dirty. | Do not look at the laser when the machine is cutting as it may spoil your eyesight. |
| Do not leave the laser system unsupervised when in operation. |
Start Up
Step 1: Open the cover of the laser cutter fully
Step 2: Clean the lens of the laser cutter
Step 3: Verify the thickness of the material you intend to cut using a Vernier calliper
Step 4: Place the material under the laser cutter
Step 5: Turn on the Air Compressor by flicking the red switch if it is not built in (M2 only)
Step 6: Turn on the Fume Extractor by pressing the green button (M2 and Pro)
Step 7: Turn on the main laser cutter by clicking on the black switch
Step 8: Wait until the laser cutter finishes initialization
Step 9: Close the cover gently (M2 and Pro) and ensure that the "L" and "R" button LED is on (M2 Only)
Step 10: Proceed to the workstation (Licensed Desktop with CorelDraw)
Operation of Laser Cutter Including the Basics of CorelDraw
Step 1: Import Fusion360 (DXF/SVG file) from your own Fusion360 or use a downloaded one from the internet. Image Files (BMP,JPEG and PNG) can also be imported into CorelDraw for cutting.
Step 2: Click on the OUTLINE of the desired sketch(s) and open the specifications tab by double clicking the icons on the bar at the bottom right of the screen.
Step 3: Set line weight, colour and fill options to meet your requirements. Check images below for specifications.
Figure 1: Specifications Pt.1
Figure 2: Specifications Pt. 2
Step 4: Send to print once your requirements have been met by pressing the print button at the top left of the screen or by pressing the CTRL-P shortcut on your keyboard. This should send you to a new page.
Step 5: Turn on "Auto Focus" (M2 Only) or "Thickness" (Pro Only) by clicking on the option located on the top right of the screen. Turn on "Air Assist" (M2 Only)
Epilog Fusion Pro Machine | |
On Epilog Dashboard (top right), choose Auto Focus: Thickness | On Epilog Dashboard (right side), Choose Auto Focus: ON, Choose Air Assist: ON |
Step 6: Specify the cutting methods. On the right side of the screen, it will show the cutting method for each object that you have specified. Any object's line-weight set to hairline is considered a vector cut (Laser cutter will cut THROUGH the material) while those set to thickness are considered as engraving (Laser cutter will "draw" on the material).
Step 7: Also on the right side of the screen, specify the material that you intend to cut by clicking the "Load Material Library" button (Icon looks like a file with an up-arrow coming out) and choose the material that you are cutting or engraving (5mm plywood, 3mm acrylic, 300DPI engraving etc.). Make sure that you are on the correct tab when selecting the material. (Vector tab for cutting & Engraving tab for engraving).
Step 8: Make Final adjustments (Cycle, Thickness, Offset).
Note for step 8: You would usually not change these settings and proceed with default settings. In the event that you do want to change these settings, check with the person in charge before you continue.
Step 9: Position the material (M2 Only) or the work area (Pro Only) for cutting.
Note for Step 9: If cutting multiple pieces at a time, position them on the printing page in such a way that they minimise the amount of material wasted. i.e. Don't leave big gaps between pieces.
Epilog Fusion Pro Machine | |
There is a built-in camera in this model which allows you to see the material on the laser cutter bed. To change the location of the cutting on the material, move the outline of the cutting on CorelDraw to your desired location and the laser cutter will respond accordingly. | There is no Built-in camera but there are 2 ways you can do it. 1) Adjust your objects using the mouse tool on the left bar and adjust base on the location of the 2 rulers on the top and on the left. 2) Check out with the lab in charge for the Jog feature (Advanced users only) |
Step 10: Once material is properly positioned, click on print to send the file to the laser cutter.
Epilog Fusion Pro Machine | |
To Cut, check your file name and estimated time to cut on the LCD Touch screen. Once confirmed, press the PLAY button | To Cut, check your file name and estimated time to cut on the LCD screen. Once confirmed, press the GO button |
Step 11: After the cutting is complete, wait about 30 seconds to 1 minute before opening the laser cutter and retrieving the product from the machine.
Step 12: Delete the file you have just cut from to list on the laser cutter screen so as to not clog it up and make it harder for you or other people to locate their desired file in future cuts.
Shut Down
Step 1: Open the lid laser cutter fully and removed the finished pieces and leftover material from the honeycomb bed.
Step 2: Close the lid of the laser cutter gently.
Step 3: Shutdown the main laser cutter machine (M2 and Pro)
Step 4: Turn off the Air Compressor (M2 Only) and Fume Extractor (M2 and Pro)
Step 5: Shutdown the PC
Step 6: Remove and dispose of all the waste materials
Note for Step 6: Waste materials includes any shavings or leftover pieces that are too small to be used for another round of cutting. Any leftover material that is of sufficient size are to be put back into the material pile for future use so as to not waste any material.
As you can see from the updated SOP, there are quite a few things that were added to the original SOP as seen from all the new content in red. While some of them are small QOL (Quality of life) changes, some are more significant and important and hence I will be briefly explaining their purpose and why they have been added into the SOP.
The first step that I would like to highlight is Step 3 of the start up procedure. This step was added because the thickness of material that you are using is an important variable in the laser cutting process, hence you should not just assume that it is of a certain thickness as it may cause problems that can be easily avoided if one were to verify its thickness using a Vernier calliper beforehand.
The second step that I would like to highlight is Step 2 of the operational procedure. This step was added as setting the cutting specifications of the objects are very important and hence you would want to ensure that you are setting the correct specifications for each of your objects. For example, in the competency test for this practical, we were tasked to cut out a shape with the text "Test" engraved into the middle, in my case, I chose a heart shape. Inputting the correct settings to cut out the heart was easy as you could just click anywhere on the heart and it will auto select the heart outline. However, for engraving, clicking on the text itself would result in the programme auto selecting the heart outline rather than the text outline. This is a problem as that would mean any changes made will be to the heart and not the text, resulting in an object with the wrong cutting/engraving outcome if the mistake is not spotted and the file is sent for cutting. Hence you should make sure that you click on the outline of the desired object when inputting the specifications so as to ensure that you are getting your desired end product.
The final step that I would like to highlight is Step 12 of the operational procedure. This step was added as both a QOL change and for safety reasons. This is because the screen on the laser cutter is small and is thus very easy to fill it up. Too many undeleted files may cause someone to select the wrong file by accident as they would have to look through a long list on files on a small screen, resulting in the laser cutter cutting/engraving the wrong shape. This would be a problem especially if the material that is placed is too small to cut/engrave the file that was selected. Hence, the user should delete the file from the list once he/she is done with it so as to make it easier and safer for the next person to operate the laser cutter.
Laser Cutting Activity
Before we could carry on with the practical and laser cut our own pieces for the parametric design. All of us had to first pass the individual competency assessment before we were allowed to operate the laser cutter. In the individual competency assessment, I was tasked with cutting out a small shape with text engraving on it. Below is my souvenir from the test.
Figure 3: Individual Competency Assessment Souvenir
Once all of us have passed the Individual Competency Assessment, we could then proceed to use the laser cutter to laser cut our parametric design which was a laptop stand that has an extra compartment to house a keyboard. Below are the pictures of our parametric design.
Figure 4: Individual Pieces
Figure 5: Assembled Product (Side View)
Figure 6: Assembled Product (Top View)
Figure 7: Keyboard Holder (Side View)
Figure 8: Keyboard Holder (Top View)
Figure 9: Keyboard Holder + Laptop Stand (Side View)
Figure 10: Keyboard Holder + Laptop Stand (Top View)
Reflection
I personally found the laser cutting experience to be pretty fun and quite satisfying. Operating the laser cutter was surprisingly easy and I had initially went into the practical thinking that operating the laser cutter would be very complex. Although I had failed the individual competency assessment the first time round, it was not due to a lack of knowledge or understanding of the laser cutting process but was down to an unfamiliarity with the button layout of CorelDraw. I knew what steps had to be done but was unable to perform them as I did not know where to click in order to get the programme to do what I want. For instance, when I was supposed to engrave text onto the souvenir piece, I knew that I had to fill up the text with green but was unable to find the window that would allow me to fill it green and hence, I failed my first attempt at the individual competency assessment. However, once I got the hang of it and found out where the buttons were and how to access the windows that I wanted, I was able to breeze through the assessment and proceeded to laser cutting my group's parametric design of a laptop stand with a keyboard holder.
The actual configuration and cutting using CorelDraw and the laser cutter went smoothly as all of us had gotten used to the laser cutting workflow, however, we soon realised that there was a problem in our parametric design when the base board came out with thick engravings where the slots for the stand pieces were supposed to be. These engravings as seen in the engraved "bars" down the side of our finished product were much larger than the stand pieces and their placement was too far apart from each other to support the laptop. We were initially quite confused and worried that we messed it up but after some quick thinking, we realised that the base board was still usable and since we had used parametric design for the base board in Fusion360, changing the dimensions of it was as easy as changing the values in the parametric settings. After some tweaks to the measurements and trying again, the laptop stand and keyboard holder turned out to be a success as it works perfectly with the laptop and keyboard that our leader, Wayne, was using. I feel that this error was actually beneficial to me and I am kind of glad that I got to experience it as I would not have understood nor appreciated the use of parametrics in designs as much without it.
Overall, this practical was less complex and more fun than I had initially thought which is the best of both worlds. I have learnt a lot from this practical experience and am confident in using my new skills in laser cutting for not only my project for this semester which is a CO ventilation system but also for my capstone project as I can envision myself using it then.
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