Technology of processing of materials. Laser cutting of plexiglas

Plexiglas is a universal material, which has a wide application. It is, moreover, quite practical and durable. Another important characteristic of the material is an ideal transparency, because of which it has good optical data. Plexiglas is used in such industries as shipbuilding, aircraft industry or auto industry, advertising business.

Technologies

The main advantage of Plexiglas is that it can easily be suited to any kind of processing. There are various technologies that are used when working with this material. Laser cutting of Plexiglas is an innovative method, which was specially created to solve more complex problems. The main technique of material processing is a mechanical kind of cutting of acrylic sheets. For this work, format-cutting and milling machines are used. This method is widely used, but with the advent of new modern design projects, we have to look for an alternative to it.

The laser cutting machine is used in the creation of figured nesting products. Industrial equipment enables the processing of large volumes of products to order. The thickness of the products can reach up to 25 mm. Laser cutting of plexiglas allows you to get a perfect end structure for the future product. After this treatment there is a polished edge that gives the products a more presentable appearance. This type of cutting is used for the manufacture of many products from Plexiglas, especially acrylates.

As it was said above, there are several ways of processing the material. Each method has its own characteristics. Between the laser-figured and milling cut, you can notice a significant difference. In the first case, the end of the product takes a neat polished appearance. If you use milling cutting Plexiglas, the edge is matte. Here the element for cutting is a milling cutter. The maximum rotation speed is 24,000 rpm. During the cutting of Plexiglas, the material can often be reflowed. This is possible due to improperly configured equipment.

Laser cutting of plexiglass. Technology features

Plexiglas, or sheet plastic, is widely used in many areas, from the production of advertising and commercial equipment, and ending with the use as objects for the interior. Processing in this way is a fairly time-consuming process. Laser cutting of Plexiglas is carried out with rather high speed. Thus, for example, cutting a sheet 3 mm thick occurs at 25 mm per second. After laser cutting, small cracks can be seen on the ends of the product. They are the result of the release of energy, which accumulates at the ends during processing. But with the help of the settings of the cutting machine, you can solve this problem. Laser cutting, whose price is from 10 to 200 rubles per running meter, has properties that you will not find in other types of processing. Only this way, you can get a quality cutting with an accuracy of 0.01 mm. In addition, laser cutting is non-contact - no cutting element is in contact with the material. The minimum thickness of the sheet with this treatment can be 0.1 mm. Using this type of Plexiglas cutting, you can create exclusive products according to individual sketches. Thanks to the accuracy with this method, you can not only create figures of any complexity, but also save on the expense of the material.

Technological process

The action of the apparatus, which is used for cutting Plexiglas, is based on computer programming. Developed in electronic form in the ".cdr" format, the future product layout is loaded into the equipment control unit. In accordance with the required result, the computer gives the laser the necessary parameters: thickness, power and direction of motion.

The usual type of cutting

In this mode of laser cutting, compressed air is supplied to the treatment zone . The end faces of the product are obtained with roughness, which is considered to be a characteristic feature of cutting in the normal mode. The same method is used to process and mirror Plexiglas.

Polished processing of plexiglas

At this type of cutting, compressed air is no longer fed. The processing speed decreases. The width of the cut is increased by melting the edge. The end part acquires a polished appearance as a result of the absence of small roughnesses. Quality cutting of glass is much more expensive than usual, this is due to the fact that the cutting speed is reduced by half. Polished cutting is best seen on the end surface of acrylic glass. Quality directly depends on its thickness. On the colored glass, the effect of the polished cut is less noticeable.