Cutting Nylon MD 1

[burnsie90]

We are using a Bystar 3015 4400W laser and we are looking into a job cutting 0.06 Nylon MD. I do not have a parameter for this material. Can anyone help me with some pointers on speed, power, gas, etc.

Thank you,
Kevin

 

[thepooh]

hello

I ve got some knowlegde about cutting plastic but I need information about NYLON MD ??

the pooh

 

[burnsie90]

I do not know much about it. I did talk with Bystronic and they said that they do not support plastic material, but when they did give out that kind of paramaters they would recommend using the param for plexyglass. Does this help some?

Thank you for the responce,
Kevin

 

[msandoval]

No laser manufacturer usually gives out parameters for cutting plastics due to the safety hazards.

Here is a few pointers:

a) READ THE MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) and Material Certification First and foremost. This will tell you the safety hazards of the material.

b) Make sure you use Nitrogen as your assist gas. May use shop air as a second alternative but use mainly nitrogen. Never use oxygen as this may cause fire.

c) Make sure your shop is very well ventilated and your dust collector is working properly and also have a fire extinguisher just in case. Some people remove the filters from the dust collector so these don't get clogged.

d) Cancel the Z-Axis Sensor and make sure you maintain a fixed-nozzle gap (usually very high 0.080" to 0.125") and compensate with your focus accordingly. Never let the nozzle drag on top of the material. I cracked a lens because of the smoke coming from the material being processed.

e) If the plastic you are cutting produces a lot of smoke, increase your gas pressure enough to let the suction system of your machine do its trick

f) Start slow with low power and increase feedrate/power/gas as needed.

g) BE SAFE AT ALL TIMES. EVALUATE IF IT'S REALLY WORTH THE HASSLE OR THE RISK.

 

[revdode]

Everything msandoval wrote PLUS

Many plastics just should not be cut with a laser, the fumes they produce are toxic. Some laser manufacturers sell specialist extraction setups for these applications, they aren't cheap and the filter life (carbon or similar) can be short.
I generally avoided cutting plastics in production jobs for this reason, the costs of doing it right, and doing it safely made it uneconomic. I did cut small pieces of PC, tried Nylon sheet (better off with a band saw) and painted or powder coated product, but again only small areas.