Our Laser Cutting Services: Acrylic and Other Plastics
Laser cutting is a non-contact form of cutting that uses a focused laser beam to cut cleanly a variety of plastic materials. We offer laser cutting and laser profiling services using our state-of-the-art CNC-controlled laser cutting machinery. We laser cut acrylic, mylar, polypropylene, polyester, and several thin film laminates including printed membrane switch materials.
Key Benefits of Laser Cut Plastic:
Laser cutting offers the following key benefits:
- quick and efficient cutting
- high-quality cut finish
- low-cost set ups & no tooling costs
- highly intricate cut patterns can be achieved
- the ability to change component designs easily
Uses of Laser Cut Plastic
The application areas for our laser-cutting services are quite diverse and include:
- laser cutting of industrial components for a variety of industries
- contract manufacture of finished acrylic products for product marketers
- cutting of retail display components and stands for designers and shop fitters
- subcontract laser cutting of acrylic profiles for screen printers
- subcontract laser cutting of acrylic profiles for plastic fabricators
Plastics We Can Laser Cut
Our range of machines are disigned specifically for laser cutting plastic. They allow us to process the following material and thickness combinations:
acrylic - from 0.5mm film to 50mm thick block
mylar - from 0.1mm to 1.0mm
polypropylene - up to 1.2mm
Acrylic
Laser cut acrylic has a fine polished edge. Clear, frosted and tinted materials give the best edge results. All colours, including solids, can be cut with an extremely fine level of detail. In our experience, the best results are achieved laser cutting the Perspex and Plexiglas brands of acrylic. We recommend these brands highly due to their consistency, quanlity and colour range available. We do cut other brands of acrylic when a customer has a spcific colour requirement., and so our cutting experience includes material from all major suppliers.
Mylar & Melinex
Laser cut polyester film has a number of applications in industry. Laser cutting can be a better approach to processing these material that stamping or die cutting. In our experience, this applies when cut pattern is intricate, when the componets are large, or when the ability to adjust design is important.
Polypropylene
Polyproylene is a flexible, durable and clean plastic. The practical thickness limit for laser cuting polypropylene is much more restricted than acrylic. Acceptable results are achievable on relatively thin sections and the best results are achieved using material less than 1mm thick. For thicker polyproylene compents we advise CNC routing as our recommended process. In spite of the thickness limitation we have seen significant growth in applications specifying thin section laser cut polypropylene.
Other Plastics
The above are the three most common laser cut plastics. We have experience in laser cutting other plastic materials and we have worked with a number of suppliers in developing laser cutting as a processing option for their plastic material.
