Perforated metal sign

[wesleyn]

I have a customer that would like a perforated metal sign where various sizes of holes create an image when viewed from a distance. The material is 0.06" stainless steel with over 30,000 holes ranging from 0.05" to 0.375" diameter in a 4' x 8' sheet. Is this even possible with a 10KW laser or will the material warp like crazy? Any suggestions?

 

[3DDave]

That's an average of 6.5 holes/square inch. Seem sort of large to remain flat even without the holes.

 

[Compositepro]

0.060" at that size is pretty flexible, so it will be as flat as the frame and stiffeners that support it.

 

[TheLaserburns]

Nest it up in a random order so as to not get excessive heat build up in one part of the sheet. 4 holes bottom right hand corner then 4 holes top left hand corner then 5 holes in the middle and so on. Or even go to extremes and one here one there. Yes this will increase cutting time with a lot of head travel but it should work. You may still get some warping but by distributing the cutting over the whole sheet should keep it to a minimum.
Where I work we can cut up to 800 28mm x 19mm rings out of 1800 x 1200 0.5mm 304SS sheet. We dont get much if any curling or warping.

If you ask me to do something, I will do it. There's no need to nag me every 6 months

 

[IRstuff]

Such a thin substrate might not get as much lateral heat transfer as one might fear. However, 30,000 holes in 4'x8' works out to 6.5 holes per sq. in.

That would seem to make it almost lacey; I'd almost be more worried that it behaved like actual lace than whether it stayed flat.

If you already know the image, then you can calculate how much material is removed.

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[LaserSpyder]

No Problem with Stainless Steel I cut hundreds of key chains with tiny details making small spiders, ill cut a whole sheet like this no problem, minimal warping, the only thing I have to do is split up the program in four to fit so much memory on to one sheet, cut away my friend ull be fine

 

[LaserSpyder]

stainless steel even at .60 is still very rigid, but please tell us ur outcome because it sounds like not a lot of people here actually handle stainless steel, Thank you

 

[drossfree]

I have cut perforated sheet quite often you will get warping but I usually clamp outer frame of the part on all 4 sides and use avoid heat build up on ordering the cuts so the head moves more. I estimate the center of a 4×8 sheet will rise 3 inches by the time it's finished

 

[wesleyn]

Hi guys,
The customer really wanted aluminum so we ran a test using a 48" square 0.06 aluminum sheet and had very little if any warping. The test pattern had over 15,000 holes ranging in size from 0.050" to 0.239" and some unperforated areas. We used an increment of 6 during cutting, going back and forth over the sheet cutting every 6th hole until finished to minimize localized heating.

 

[LaserSpyder]