My experience with Laser Cutting
- Kaavya
- Mar 16, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 9, 2020
Laser cutting first began being used in the late 1960s when it was used to cut a 1mm thick steel sheet in 1967 by Peter Houldcroft (Hilton, P.A, 2007). From then on, it has been used in a myriad of applications such as, but not limited too, advertising materials, architecture, furniture, toys, stationery, automotive and so much more. Laser cutters are a precise and quick way of creating designs without the need to use other tooling processes so it’s understandable why they have such popularity among so many industries. Chris Byrne, who is a toy industry expert, mentions that due to laser cutters (and other machines) there has been an improvement in the manufacturing industry and has made it easier and cheaper to produce puzzles which is even more important now that there is an increase in puzzle sales because of people spending more time at home (Pasquarelli, 2020).
My first time using a laser cutter was in the design lab and I found the experience to be very enjoyable. I created a name-tag with a small paper plane icon as an embellishment. The process of designing what I wanted to laser cut, engrave and etch turned out to be quite straight forward as I had experience using Adobe Illustrator before. We simply created shapes and text and changed their line colours according to the action we wanted for each component.
Red → laser cut
Blue → laser engrave
Black → laser etch
The next step was setting up the laser cutter which I found slightly more complicated and I hope to be able to learn as I get the chance to practice it more.
Overall, my first experience of using the laser cutter was great and I hope to create many more design prototypes with it in the future. I’d like to experiment on denim and other stiff materials as well as wood because I think the effect of the laser will create an interesting look on those materials.
References
Hilton, P. A. (2007). The Early Days of Laser Cutting (August 2007). TWI.
Pasquarelli, A. (March, 2020). Jigsaw Puzzles are Having a Moment, but Good Luck Finding One. AdAge.
Comments