Laser cutting

Laser-cutting is a non-contact, thermal-based fabrication process is ideal for several materials, including wood, glass, paper, metal, plastic, and gemstone.The word "laser" in laser cutting stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Laser cutting allows a person to produce detailed and accurate parts. Laser cutting works by directing the output of a high-power laser most commonly through optics. The laser optics and CNC (computer numerical control) are used to direct the material or the laser beam generated. The focused laser beam is directed at the material, which then either melts, burns, vaporizes away, or is blown away by a jet of gas, leaving an edge with a high-quality surface finish.

Laser cutter system

1.Computer: Instructions are sent from here to the laser cutter.
2.Laser cutters: This machine receives instruction from the PC to cut the designs.
3.Fume Extractor: A safety equipment to prevent accumulation of smoke and gases in the laser cutter. The toxic fumes emitted during laser cutting are sucked out through the Fume extractor.
4.Air compressor: A safety equipment that acts as air assist to blow the laser path clear of smoke and debris.

Here is a picture of the laser cutter that we use in the Fablab.

For the laser cutting assigment, we were tasked to laser cut a tissue box.
The first step was to design the tissue box on Fusion 360. Here are some sketches.

The second step was to save each side of the tissue box(6 sides) as a dxf file.
The third step was to save the 6 dxf files into a thumb drive.
The fourth step is to plug the thumb drive into the laser cutter computer, and use corel draw to scale the 6 sides.
The fith and final step is to laser cut the 6 sides using the laser cutter machine
Below is an image of how the tissue box will look like.