Tolerances

Parts cut on a laser are generally made with a tolerance of 0.005 inches (5/1000 of an inch). This means that you should not depend upon features to be more accurately placed than 0.005 inches. Holes may be up to 0.01 inches smaller or larger than your specification.

Kerf

Kerf is the cutting width of the tool used to make your parts. We typically cut parts with a laser beam width of 0.01 inches. Features smaller than this size may be lost. Also, inside corners have to be able to accommodate the width of the laser beam.

Melting of plastic materials of charring of wood may also affect accuracy.

Taper

Parts will have a slight taper along the cut edge of the part, typically approximately 0.01 inches.

Surface Finish

Laser cutting plastics produces a fairly smooth surface, particularly when compared with waterjet cutting. Here is what 0.118 inch thick clear acrylic plastic looks like after being cut with a laser:

A closeup of the above image:

Tabs

Your part may have a small tab where the part was held to the stock material. You can remove this tab with a file or a similar tool.

Comments

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Graham   |2011-05-10 16:39:28 Is there a typo for the laser width? It says 0.060" is that correct, or should it be 0.006"? Reply | Quote

Big Blue Saw Administrator   |2011-05-11 01:38:20 Thanks for pointing this out; I will correct it. It's actually about 0.01", but effects like melting and burning mean that you often can't rely on having the kerf that size. Reply | Quote

Julian Marsh   |2011-12-19 23:56:03 Questions about tabs on parts: Is there anything a customer can do in the part design process to reduce the likelihood of having a residual tab at one or more points along the edge of a cut part? Are there differences between laser-cutting and water-jet cutting with regard to the need for a part to remain attached to the stock material with one or more tabs during cutting? If a laser-cut part is large enough or has certain shape characteristics, can it be cut without needing to remain attached to the stock material? If it is necessary for a part to remain connected to the stock material during the entire laser-cutting cycle, can a customer include artifacts in the part design to indicate the preferred locations for the connection tabs? Reply | Quote

Big Blue Saw Administrator   |2011-12-20 00:50:26 1. If you want or don't want the tab in a particular spot, just tell us in the comment section of the order, or e-mail info@bigbluesaw.com to work it out. 2. Yes, laser cut parts can generally be done without tabbing the parts together. 3. For laser, see #2. For waterjet, the parts generally need to be larger than about 4 inches square for tabs not to be necessary. 4. As mentioned above, tabs are generally not needed for laser cut parts, but if you wanted to design a set of parts that you tab together, you're free to do so. Reply | Quote

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