Are you wondering if Precision Board HDU can be cut with a laser-engraver? Absolutely! Our friends at Trotec Laser cut a variety of shapes out of a piece of PBLT-15 Precision Board, including our logo and a highly-detailed relief and sent us setting information. You can see photos and watch videos below of Precision Board HDU being engraved and cut by a laser machine.
Trotec Laser used their Speedy 400 machine to engrave and cut the 15 lb. Precision Board. The machine has maximum processing speeds of 140 inch/sec and includes the system’s patented low-maintenance design which encloses fragile system critical components in a rugged housing, protecting them from dirt and dust, which significantly minimizes maintenance requirements, down time and overall ownership costs. The system settings they used to cut the various shapes, logos and reliefs out of Precision Board HDU are as follows.
Engraving Settings:
Power: 100%
Speed: 30%
PPI: 500
Air Assist: On
Cutting Settings:
Power: 100%
Speed: 0.5%
Hertz: 1000
Air Assist: On
Z Offset: -0.08
Some benefits of laser cutters:
- Lasers are extremely versatile, able to process a wide variety of materials and need no additional setup, i.e. chemical additives or post processing.
- Ease of use, with software packages compatible with most graphics programs.
- Low energy consumption and speedier processing times.
- Minimal equipment maintenance with low wear and tear due to no-contact process.
- Extreme precision and detail.
- Reduced waste and by-product because output is vapors which can be exhausted or ventilated with an air-filtration system.
- Consistent quality level due to ability to save parameters of specific jobs and materials in database.
- No material finishing required.
Source: “Advantages of lasers versus other methods of cutting, marking and engraving signs” – Trotec Laser, Inc.
Trotec used “Relief Mode” to engrave the above relief into Precision Board and achieve such fine detail. Applications Specialist Josh Stephens says, “That is a function in our JobControl software that processes grayscale images at varying power levels, achieving a three-dimensional effect.” He added, “during this process, the laser power is proportionally controlled depending on the grayscale value of the graphic, meaning that white pixels are processed without power, light areas have low power, darker areas will have more power, and black will have maximum power.”
JobControl is a Trotec exclusive software that comes included with their Speedy and SP series systems. Watch the video below to see “Relief Mode” in action on Precision Board HDU.
You may be concerned with the toxicity of using lasers on Precision Board, but you shouldn’t be.
According to a study conducted by Universal Laser Systems on the effluent created from laser cutting several different densities of Precision Board indicated that, “the effluent stream is primarily composed of carbon monoxide, acetone, propene, and acetonitrile. The concentration of the detected compounds did not exceed their respective OSHA PEL at any level of filtration during this study.”
Permissible Exposure Limits (PEL) are federal regulations that dictate safe chemical exposure levels.
Head over to precisionboard.com to request free samples and try it for yourself!
Trotec Laser is a leading international provider of advanced, high-speed laser equipment for cutting, engraving and industrial marking, and a wide selection of engraving supplies. Trotec was originally founded in Wels, Austria in 1997 and established in the United States in Mississippi in 2002. Now headquartered in Plymouth, Michigan, the U.S. business has grown to 10 times its original size.
SEE ALSO: Laser Engraving and Precision Board HDU