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Inconsistent Cuts in acrylic

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Laser
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2023-07-04

Hi
Im trying to figure out an issue with inconsistent behaviour and im after some advice!
Im cutting a 400x600 sheet of acrylic, with lots of small shapes with cutouts if i cut one or two at t time i seem to get better results than if i cut a full sheet. I will get almost a random shapes that are not cut all the way thought, usually just some small dots that are all the way through.
If i cut the same shape on its own it seems ok.
Im using a omtech 100w autofocus CO2 laser. 3mm thick acrylic. Cutting at 18 mm/sec 47% power.
The ones that do cut work perfectly and ive tried using the same shapes that wont on there own and it cuts fine.

C

    • Darren

      2023-07-05
      I cut a lot of 3mm acrylic with my 40W machine…
This is a vertical alignment tool (from Russ Sadler)…
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      • Darren

        : You have 2.5 times the power I do and my cut settings are 13mm/s@80%… yours are 18mm/s@47%… you seem to be running too fast for the power you’re using… I’d bump both power and speed… the only real use of a big machine (meaning power) is that it will cut thicker material… with acrylic the faster you can go, within reason, the better cut you will achieve. Use that 100W and increase the power… If you use air assist, lower the pressure to just what it needs to keep the lens clean. High pressure seems to do more damage than low pressure when cutting acrylic. This can also indicate an alignment problem… especially if the cut is different with the location on the laser bed… You can singly cut out an object in the area of failure to ensure this… however I’d suggest you start at m1 and check the TEM state or mode 1 of the tube and that the alignment is correct. Good luck

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