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Week3 - Computer Controlled Cutting

Here are my week 3 assignment​

What should I achieve in this week:​

Group assignment:​

  • Do your lab's safety training 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, accounting for the lasercutter kerf, which can be assembled in multiple ways, and for extra credit include elements that aren't flat

Computer Controlled Cutting Notes​

Tools:

  • Knife: last well known ultrasonice knife
  • laser: user laser (some micro wave/micro wave machine)
  • plasma: create a plasma that can melt through(similar to melding)
  • whater jet cutters - has a supersonic jet of water that entrains a garnet abrasive and it can cut through glass stone or six-inch steel.
  • hot waires - melt, making architectural trim foam and wire cuts
  • wire EPMs - high resolution, high aspect ratio metal ports, machine building

CAD

  • Inscape Extensions for laser cutting

The design to the Machine(powered by the printer driver, different have differnet ones)

Mods - open gramm - cutters - cut, support PNG or SVG images, can output directly

(More advanced cutter first control the angle and then they tilt it)

Vinyl cutters - special matterials

  1. Epoxy Film Electrical Tape(high temperature tolorated, for soldering)
  2. copper tape

HongHao Deng - cut the circuit with knives.

laser cutters

screen printing - halfone, holes, path

the series of joints

Axial joints:

  • chamfer - misagligned, help compressing the material
  • snapfit - not only compressing the material, but also a bump goes into a slot
  • flexure - beam that bends, a buckle
  • pinned - a pin can join to fix

right angles joints:

  • finger - don't hold very well
  • snap -
  • wedge - the tolerance is very close

one parameter changed - propagates through the whole design

KERF the materials that left behind by a tool when it passes through

flat sheet - bends

cut off the laser cutter, vinyl cutter, etc

one beam bends, two beam parallel transport

laser comes from ligh amplification, by simulated emission of radiation

CO2 is the most common laser(10.6 um)

fiber laser - an optical fiber that's doped - cu metal(1-2um)

Safety is really important

cardboard - vinyl cutter - smooth curf - renewable

pasata can be cut wetl

The setting of lase cutters

  • focus is the distance

  • power - cut through, - just right, not put too much energy in one place

  • speed - go through, - just right

  • rate - just right

  • passes - depending on the laser, circle

  • vector - follow the line

  • raster - go back and forth