Week 03. Computer-Controlled Cutting

Assignments for this week

Group assignment

  • characterize your lasercutter's focus, power, speed, rate, kerf, joint clearance and types

Individual assignment

  • cut something on the vinylcutter
  • design, lasercut, and document a parametric construction kit
    • account for the lasercutter kerf
    • the kit must be able to be assembled in multiple ways
    • (for extra credit) include elements that aren't flat

What I've done this week

  1. Characterize my lasercutter's parameters
    • About my lasercutter
    • How to characterize
    • Results of tests
    • Parameters I recomand
  2. Cut a logo sticker on vinylcutter
    • Design a logo
  3. Make a parametric construction kit with lasercutter
    • Design a construction kit
    • Parameterize the constructoin kit
    • Lasercut the construction kit
    • Play with the constructionkit

1. Characterize my lasercutter's parameters

Trotec Speedy 100

Trotec Speedy 100

Technical data of Trotec Speedy 100

Working area 608 x 303 mm
Max. height of workspace 170 mm
Laser type CO2
Laser class 2
Focus length 2inches (approx. 5 cm)
Max. processing speed 2.8 m/s
Max. acceleration 40 m/s²

How to characterize

In Jobcontrol for trotec you set the scanning speed, laser power, pulse rate and scanning iteration.

I made a design to test the scanning speed and laser power for both cutting and engraving.

You can define 16 different laser conditions at a time.the 16 laser conditions are identified by colors on the following table:

No Color R G B
1 Black 0 0 0
2 Red 255 0 0
3 Blue 0 0 255
4 Desert 51 102 153
5 Cyan 0 255 255
6 Green 0 255 0
7 Grass 0 153 51
8 Forest 0 102 51
9 Olive 153 153 51
10 Brown 153 102 51
11 Walnut 102 51 0
12 Plum 102 0 102
13 Purple 153 0 204
14 Magen 255 0 255
15 Orange 255 102 0
16 Yellow 255 255 0

I designed the test model as the following images.

trotec test

I made this vector model in a SVG file, and ran the laser cutter row by row changing the the scanning speed every time.

Results of tests

Results from the Engraving test - Acrylic 2 mm:

engraving acrylic 2 mm

Results from the Cutting test - Acrylic 2 mm:

cutting acrylic 2 mm

From the cutting test, little conditions came out to completely cut. So, I tried scanning twice with the same conditions.

cutting acrylic 2 mm twice

Parameters I recomand

From the results, the following laser parameters:

Engrave Cut
Power 100% 100%
Speed 50% 1%
Iteration 1 time 2 times

2. Cut a logo sticker on vinylcutter

For the vinylcutter assignment I decided to make a logo stick. I planend the logo to be a homage of my final project. I'm planning my final project to be a lamp with lattice shells. So, I designed my logo as a perspective view of a lattice shell.

Prepare a model to vinylcut

Step1. Make a 3D model of lattice shell.

prepare vinyl model 1

Step 2. Cut the shell with a plane.

prepare vinyl model 2

Step 3. Project to the plane.

prepare vinyl model 3

Step 4. Move the projection to the base plane.

prepare vinyl model 4

Step 5. Fill the part

prepare vinyl model 5

Step 6. Turn the figure into binary image

First I turn the boundary into binary image. In the next step I turn trace bitmap to turn the raster image into vector image. However, if the boundary was binary, the boundaries become double lines and the vinyl cutter will cut the lines twice.

vinyl model 1]

So, when you make the binary image you must fill the model with either black or white.

vinyl model2]

Step 7. Make vector image.

Trace bitmap in inkscape and save it as an EPS file.

Caution

I could not export EPS files in inkscape for Mac. So, I did it in Windows.

Now I am ready to vinylcut!

3. Make a parametric construction kit with lasercutter

Design a construction kit

Parameterize the constructoin kit

Lasercut the construction kit

Play with the constructionkit