OUGD503 - Studio Brief 1 - G . F Smith (Large Individual) - Laser Cutting Trials

Laser Cutter tests

After all of the different shapes for the pieces were created two versions were made for testing on the laser cutter.

It was considered that the shapes could be created through precut shapes allowing the next paper to be seen underneath or could be formed with the addition of a tear off section which would reveal the next colour underneath. To create the perforated section for the laser cutter a dashed line was created, this was then outlined allowing the lasercutter to cut around these. All of the lines for the design were reduced to 0.25pt as this is the line width that the laser cutter recognises.

Any typography within the design would have to be digitally printed or screen printed, whilst the design would also have to be lasercut to get accurate and precise shapes that would be consistent. To combine these two aspects it was considered that the design could be first printed then lasercut as the laser is very precise so more likely to line up. Doing it this way round would also mean less pressure on the printing process and mean there would be no need for registration. Also laser cutting the design would mean multiple designs would be able to be cut at once. To test this a mock design was trialled, one version was printed with the text in the correct position with an outline which allowed the laser to be registered on. The lasercutter file was a direct copy of this however the typography was removed, allowing the design to be cut around the printed section. Having the border would allow the design to always start in the same place.

Using the lasercutter allowed multiple designs to be accurately cut.

When trialing the alignment of the lasercutter over the printed designs the laser was intially positioned at the bottom corner of the A4 paper as it was thought that it would then move from there to cut the rectangle out. However it was found that whereever the lasercutter is positioned a section will eventually be cut from that area. Because of this the design was cut wrongly because it started to cut from the corner of the paper, misaligning the design.

Positioning the laser at the corner of the rectangle mean that the design was cut as intended. By moving the laser along the bottom line this meant it was easier to see whether the paper was square with the laser. The cut design was only fractionally off and would not be overly noticeable from piece to piece.

The print out that was put into the laser cutter.

The misaligned lasercut trial.

The correctly aligned lasercut trial.

To join all the pieces together it was considered that this could either be done using a metal screw or a piece of dowel or acrylic tube through the middle. The hole was made to be 6mm as this was thick enough to hold all of the pieces together whilst not detracting from the overall design. 

When all of the pieces are put onto the dowel they can then be moved about to form the circular form of the original designs.

An expanded view of the all the pieces on the dowel shows how each piece is reflected after one another to fill the space where the cut outs are. 

The perforation tests worked well in creating a strong bond however were still easy to tear off.

The perforated sections from the calendar could be paper samples to keep or memos to right on.

The laser cutter was on the card setting, however this was burning the back of the card which wouldn't look very refined and the marks would transfer onto the other card when layered over one another. 

Setting the lasercutter to the paper setting created a much cleaner cut and stopped the burning on the back.

Trials of all the different shapes in their perforated form.

Trials of all the different shapes in there cut form.

Feedback / Help from Workshop Technician

It was asked whether the perforation could be made any smaller however he said that what had been done was the best the lasercutter would do.

The burn marks, it was suggested could be improved by changing the setting like was trialed, however it was considered that the actual card would be thicker so would need to be on the higher setting to cut through, therefore maybe burning the paper. It was suggested that the design could be elevated off the base of the lasercutter as it was said this was quite dirty and might be creating the marks. 

In terms of the dowel / acrylic it was said that although dowels come in different sizes it does not mean that they are all the same size so one might be a tight fit whilst another may be slack. He suggested if there were problems with the hole then 0.05mm alterations should be made to the hole in the design as this would fractionally change the hole preventing it going from one extreme to the other.