Centre for Applied Research of the Faculty on Digital Media & Creative Industries
Laser cutter
Cutting with light!
A laser cutter can be used to cut materials such as cardboard, cotton, wood and Plexiglas® extremely accurately. The machine cuts wood, for instance, so precisely that separate parts can then be joined ‘dry’, without the need for glue or screws. Besides cutting, a laser cutter can also be used to engrave images, texts and logos onto almost any material.
Using a lasercutter for cutting or engraving you need a ‘vector diagram’ created with a 2D drawing program such as Adobe Illustrator, AutoCAD, Inkscape or CorelDRAW. Engraving is done inside a framework of closed lines, so if you just want to engrave something, a JPG image will suffice. (See the Illustrator guide.) Besides the .ai files generated by Illustrator you can also import .dxf files, as generated by AutoCAD (see the AutoCAD guide).
Do you want to laser cut? The Makers Lab has three lasers at its disposal. You can make a reservation for one laser. You can use the two other without a reservation. First come, first served.... Want to be sure there is a laser available for you? Then make a reservation using the online reservation system.
To do so, create an account using your HvA e-mail address. (not your HvA-ID).
One of the employees will instruct you on how to operate the laser. This will take about 20 minutes.
Students from the Faculty of Technology cannot use the lasers in the Makers Lab.
The laser engraving process ‘damages’ the surface of the material by burning into it with a pre-determined intensity. This is quite a slow process; first you have to do tests to find out what intensity to use, and then the laser goes to work, in steps, within the contours of the drawing. When large areas are engraved the results are generally not of constant quality.
You have to bring your own materials. Metal and stone cannot be processed with the laser. Cutting glass is not possible, engraving is. Certain materials are forbidden because they give off combustion gases that are toxic or which contaminate the laser. The following materials may not be cut by laser:
- PVC, Vinyl and some types of artificial leather
- Fur
- Maximum cutting bed dimensions, laser 1: 88 x 128 cm
- Maximum cutting bed dimensions, laser 2: 88 x 128 cm
- Maximum cutting bed dimensions, laser 3: 58 x 88 cm
- Maximum material cutting thickness is 8mm
- Metal, stone and glass can not be cut
- Maximum engraving dimensions laser 1: 88 x 115 cm
- Maximum engraving dimensions laser 2: 88 x 115 cm
- Maximum engraving dimensions laser 3: 58 x 75 cm