what is laser cutting?

As the name suggests, laser cutting is the process of using a powerful laser to cut and/or engrave items from flat sheets of material like plastic, wood and many other materials.

It’s been widely used for industrial and engineering applications for many years, but is also ideal for detailed art, design and jewellery projects as it works with a wide range of materials and can cut and engrave extremely intricate designs.

What is it used for?

Traditionally laser cutting has been used by engineers to cut complex parts for machines, typically out of metal or industrial plastics. It required the use of specialty CAD software to create the files that the machine could understand, it required expertise in part design and fabrication to use and it needed high volumes of production to justify the cost.

However it’s a fantastic tool for a much wider range of applications, with our experience we’re able to cut hundreds of specialty designer acrylics and timbers. 

This makes it ideal for jewellery, art, architectural models, signage, stencil making and many more creative projects.

How does the laser cutter work?

The laser cutter works by directing a high powered laser beam very precisely at the material to either engrave, mark or cut right through it. 

When cutting, the laser beam burns away the material leaving you with the cutout shape that you have specified in your design. The cutting beam is very thin (typically around 0.1mm) and precise, resulting in incredibly detailed and accurate cuts. 

By adjusting the beam power and machine speed we can also mark or remove some of the surface of the material without cutting all the way through. This is known as etching or engraving and can give some stunning effects on wood and plastic, with this we can engrave names or artwork onto the material, or remove sections of material for an artist to fill with paint or resin.

This works in one of two ways, we call them Raster etching and Vector etching and these are worth discussing a bit more as they create a lot of creative opportunities for working with different materials.

Raster Etch

Raster etching is created by the laser head going back and forth across the sheet like an inkjet printer would. As it does it removes the top layer of the material, generally to a depth of about 0.2-0.5mm, depending on the material and settings.

When done on plastics the removed areas typically look slightly frosted so it can be used to print designs or names on the material. The contrast varies with material so have a look at our acrylics page for some good examples of this. 

We also have a huge range of plastics with differing surface colours and core layers, these are specifically designed to create a contrasting image when engraved – we call these 2tone plastics and we see a lot of people using them for high contrast jewellery, name badges and labels.

Because the engraved pattern is slightly recessed into the material it also opens up the ability to paint fill the relief, this is an awesome technique for jewellery and signage. On wood raster etching leaves a slightly burnt, dark caramel to black contrasting appearance, this varies a lot with material so see our wood page for examples of each of the woods we stock. This is great for signs and artwork or any complex patterns on jewellery.

Vector Etch

The other etching technique is to vector etch, here we are tracing along a line in your design with a very low power laser beam. Again we are etching away the surface, but now only with a very thin and typically quite faint line. 

This is a lot faster than raster etching as we are etching only a line, not an area, and is surprisingly useful for a number of reasons! 

It’s handy for creating alignment marks if you are assembling a complex multi-layered design or sign. It can also be used to discreetly number parts quickly to help with assembly. 

On wood a vector etch line normally retains a good contrast, so this can be a great way to draw line art on your project.

It can also be used to let you selectively remove bits of the paper masking that all our materials come with, this way you can apply your own paints or surface treatments to the material – similarly to a stencil or screenprint.