Laser Cutting Practical

We are finally going to have the opportunity to use the laser cutting equipment in the Fablab; this is going to be a huge step for most of us considering how we have never used any form of equipment like this before. All of us are tasked to draft out a Standard Operating Procedure for the use of the Laser cutting machine in order to ensure safe practice when using the equipment in the Fablab.

 

My group’s SOP (using the example of Epilog Fusion Pro):
Epilog Fusion Pro

Startup

Step	Procedure
1	Turn on the Air compressor of the Laser cutter machine
2	Turn on the Fume extractor of the Laser cutter machine
3	Turn on the Laser cutter machine and wait till machine completes initialization

Operation of laser cutter including the basic use of Corel-Draw:

Step	Procedure
1	Upload the file into CorelDraw. Ensure that the file is in .dxf or .svg format.
2	Set the Line weight, colour, and fill depending on your needs for engraving or cutting.
3	Ensure that hairline thickness is to be selected if a cut is to be made, and any thickness to be set in order to engrave.
4	Select Print on CorelDraw, and ensure that it is printed to the Epilog dashboard
5	On the Epilog dashboard, choose Auto-focus: Thickness
6	When the Epilog dashboard pops up, select the material library at the top right hand corner of each cut/engrave to be made.
7	Load the Material Library to choose which material are for cutting/engraving.
8	Change the Speed, Power and Frequency to a suitable setting for each of the cut/engraves to be made.
9	Position the material to cut using the built -in camera. You are able to view your work and cut at empty spaces to help save material.
10	Once done, Click on Print to send file to the Laser cutter. It will show up on the LCD screen for you to check your file name and estimated time to cut.
11	Once confirmed, press the PLAY button

Shutdown

Step	Procedure
1	Let the laser cutting machine cooldown for 1 minute after cutting is done
2	Turn off the Epilog dashboard program
3	Turn off the Laser cutter machine
4	Turn off the Fume Extractor of the Laser cutter machine
5	Turn off the Air compressor of the Laser cutter machine
6	Inform the lab technician that we are done cutting
7	Clear the workstation of any unused materials

Important things to take note:

1. Ensure you not have anything around the neck when operating the Laser cutter machine.
2. Long hair and fringe to be tied and clipped up
3. Open the laser cutter cover FULLY
4. Do not put head inside the machine
5. Do not slam the machine cover - interlocking light will disappear, causing a safety breach.
6. Ensure both interlocking lights are on before operation.
7. Do not lean over the machine and look at the cutting laser.

This is our group’s improved SOP for the operation of the Epilog Fusion Pro laser cutter. We have been tasked to cut a test piece with the SOP that we have drafted for ourselves, and our first SOP drafted was vague, causing us to be unable to follow operating procedures properly.

During the practical, the lecturers informed us that:
1)         Shutting down the Epilog dashboard program has to be first in order to prevent any accidental laser cutting jobs that have been queued.
2)         The printing from CorelDraw will open up Epilog dashboard, that allows us to then change the material library for each RGB cut/engraving to be made
3)         The material library may not contain all the materials that we are going to be cutting, so we may have to change the speed, power and frequency to a suitable setting for each of the cut/engraves that we are going to be making.

 I have cut out the test piece instructed by the TE here, it looks like this:

The test piece consisted of a heart shaped cut with the engraving ‘TEST’ on it.

I made sure to put ‘HAIRLINE’ thickness, while covering the outline of the heart in RGB red, while filling the ‘TEST’ letters in RGB green, before changing the speed, power, and frequency on the Epilog dashboard.

 

This is the parametric construction kit produced from the laser cutter machine:

From this…

…to this:

Reflection:

During the practical, we had to showcase our SOP to the lecturers, as well as go through the steps to use the Laser Cutter thoroughly. This proved challenging as our SOP had a few steps that were too vague for us to understand. 

 

One example would be the one mentioned in our improved SOP - we were unsure of how to load the material library because we had not included the steps to opening the Epilog dashboard from CorelDraw. This setback caused our team to revise our SOP several times before we were able to step forward again to attempt our test cuts of our parametric construction kit from the TEs. 

 

This task proved important in ensuring that we are able to run the machine smoothly without any setbacks and human errors because the laser cutter machine can be hazardous during operation. The laser produced by passing a high voltage through carbon dioxide tube can be very harmful to the eyes when looking at directly, and the cut materials can be hot to touch right after. Not to mention the wrong material to be cut, like using PVC, can cause toxic chlorine gas to be produced. Despite all the risks, the interesting part about working with the laser cutting machine was the experience of subtractive manufacturing without the need for much human effort – everything was digitized and cut out nicely for us with the use of CAD and the laser cutting machine. 

 

Reflecting forward, I used to think that CAD and the use of laser cutting is optional as we have the option of using physically intensive milling and cutting. As done in ICPD last semester, we had to physically cut and glued cardboard together with the use of joinery to create products. Now with the use of the laser cutting machine, I can see how much easier it is to digitize the designs of our creation. I will next try to venture more into more complex designs to cut using designs in Fusion360, and we hope to use the laser cutter more often in the future.