Laser Cutting

HELLOOO!!

In this section, I will be talking about laser cutting. And my learning experience in the practical of this topic.

IMPROVED SOP

Since my group’s SOP was quite lengthy and elaborate, I didn’t have much problems navigating around the coreldraw app and doing the steps that were required to cut the wood required by the lecturer. My group’s SOP looks a bit like this:

Start-Up Procedure 

1.       Turn on the air compressor located behind the laser cutting machine. This step is only applicable if you are using the Epilog Fusion M2 machine. If you are using the Epilog Fusion Pro machine, you may skip this step as the air compressor is built into the machine. 

2.       Turn on the fume extractor by pressing the green button at the left side of the machine. The button may be placed on the side facing the wall, exercise caution when reaching for the button. 

3.       Turn on the laser cutting machine by switching the On/Off switch located at the lower right side of the machine to the On position.  

4.       Wait for machine to finish initialising. The machine should say “CO2 Fusion” once the initialisation process is finished.  

5.       If the material being cut is not yet in the machine, open the hood all the way and place the material on the platform. Gently close the machine’s hood, taking care not to get any loose items or hair caught between the hood and the machine in the process.  

6.       Before starting work on the workstation, ensure that both interlock LED's are on (both L and R) after closing the hood. Do not assume that the LED’s are not working, and ensure both are on before proceeding. 

Using CorelDraw and the Laser Cutter 

7.       Using CorelDraw, import the DXG or SVG file that you want to cut out. 

8.       Select the lines you want to edit by highlighting them and then clicking on the bottom right interface panel with the colour and line weight. 

9.       Set the line weight and colour using the following guide: 

a.       For lines that will be cut, use RED for the line colour, set the line weight to hairline. 

b.       For lines that will be engraved, use GREEN for the line colour and fill in with GREEN. 

c.       For lines to be scored (outlined but not cut), use GREEN for the line colour set the line weight to hairline. 

10.   Press Control + P to send print, select Print on the popup window. 

11.   Use the following to navigate the Epilog Dashboard to start the laser cutter. 

a.       Epilog Fusion PRO machine:

                                                                                       i.Choose autofocus and select Thickness. 

                                                                                     ii.The right side of the user interface should show the respective actions that the machine will make based on the drawings from earlier. Objects with line weight set to hairline will be considered a VECTOR and will be cut, those with thickness will be labelled with ENGRAVE. 

b. Epilog Fusion M2 machines: 

                                                                                       i.Click on autofocus and toggle it on, as well as Air Assist on the lower part of the right side of the UI 

                                                                                     ii.The right side of the user interface should show the respective actions that the machine will make based on the drawings from earlier. Objects with line weight set to hairline will be considered a VECTOR and will be cut, those with thickness will be labelled with ENGRAVE. 

12.   Click on the file icon to Import Material Setting to choose the material to be cut and/or engraved. Do this for all the objects to be cut or engraved. Make sure you are on the correct tab before selecting the material settings. 

13.   Specify the thickness of the material being cut. Please follow the thickness of the material to be cut as the machine could not have enough power otherwise. 

14.   To position the head of the laser cutter: 

a.       For Fusion Pro machines, there is a built-in camera inside the machine to help position the head where the material is. 

b.       For Fusion M2 machines, use the rulers at the top and the left side to position the head using the mouse tool. 

15.   Once finished, click on Print on the bottom of the user interface and check on the machines to start cutting. 

a.       For Fusion M2 machines, the file name and estimated cutting time should appear on the LCD. Once confirmed, press the GO button. 

b.       For Fusion Pro machines, the file name and estimated cutting times should appear on the touch screen. Once confirmed, press Play to start cutting. 

16.   When the cutting has finished, wait for one minute for the material to cool down before opening the hood of the machine to obtain the materials. 

Shutdown Procedure 

17.   After taking out the material, close the hood of the machine gently and then make sure both left and right icon of interlock LED lights are on. 

18.   Turn off the laser cutting machine by switching the On/Off switch located at the lower right side of the machine to the Off position.  

19.   Turn off the fume extractor by pressing the green button at the left side of laser cutter. 

20.   Turn off the air compressor behind the laser cutter. This step is only for the Epilog Fusion M2 machine. If it is for the Epilog Fusion Pro, this step may be skipped as the compressor is built in into the machine.  

21.   Exit Corel Draw app. 

 

However, to improve the SOP, I feel like we should include diagrams such as:

Instead of writing it out in words so that the SOP will not be lengthy and full of words. I feel that we can shorten and rephrase the sentences, and add diagrams further to simplify the instructions and only explain the step with only 1 picture.

HOW I OPERATED THE LASER CUTTER

Since I didn’t have the above diagram to refer to in my SOP paper, I decided to draw it out on my own prior to the practical

As I was informed that I was using the epilog fusion pro laser cutter, I also decided to highlight the parts where only the epilog fusion pro steps were applied

And with that, it helped me out during the process of the competency test as I only needed to refer to the highlighted parts and the diagram where those were the most important.

And with that, I unsuccessfully made a successful cut from my competency test.

 

 

With the same steps, my group and I laser printed our parametric construction kit—which essentially replicates the supertree in gardens by the bay:

REFLECTION
 Based on my SOP. I would say that it is quite lengthy but precise. The teacher that tested me for the competency test was comparing the first 3 people’s SOP and he mentioned that with a longer SOP, it does not mean that it may be precise and effective. From there, what I took away from that experience is that I should make my SOP in such a way that it is short and sweet. At the beginning of the competency test, I was not aware that to open the displays, I should double click on the icon. So it took me quite a long time as I was only “1 clicking” on the icons. This made me panic as I started to overthink if what I was doing was wrong and I started to question the SOP. But after awhile, I tried double clicking and the menu finally opened up. From there, it began to become smoother as I followed the SOP correctly. However, my final product came out as unsuccessful as the words that were supposed to be “engraved” was cut through fully. The teacher that tested me told me that although my steps were correct, maybe there was some setting that made the words black(on the coreldraw), which instructed the laser cutter to cut through all the way. From this I learn that I should check on my work and double confirm whenever possible to do so.