Computer-Controlled Cutting

Lasercutter

Laser cutting is a technology that uses a laser to cut materials, and is typically used for industrial manufacturing applications, but it has started to be used by schools, small businesses, and hobbyists.

In this assignment we had to design something and laser cut it and document the parametric press-fit construction kit we made.

Designing

I made my parametric design using coreldraw software. I made a sqaure with slots on four sides of ~ 3mm which will make a press-fit construction kit.

Cutting

For proper cutts there is some instruction needs to be followed depending on the material you are working on and how you want the result to look like. Those instruction are in the instruction manual of the laser machine.

After following those instruction I send the design in the machine to be cut.

Joining

The next part was to join parts I have cut to make something from it.

Vinyl cutter

Vinyl cutter (or vinyl plotter) is a computer-controlled plotting device with a blade instead of a pen. A vector based design is created in a software program (usually Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw) and then sent to the cutter where it cuts along the vector paths laid out in the design.
The cutter is capable of moving the blade on an X and Y axis over the material, cutting it into any shape imaginable. Since the vinyl material comes in long rolls, projects with significant length like banners or billboards can be easily cut as well.
The one major limitation with vinyl cutters is that they can only cut shapes from solid colours of vinyl. A design with multiple colours must have each colour cut separately and then layered on top of each other as it is applied to the substrate.
Also, since the shapes are cut out of solid colours, photographs and gradients cannot be reproduced with a stand alone cutter

I used the vinyl cutter to cut some letter and sticked them to the back of my computer.

Downloads

For files used in this assignment can be downloaded Here