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Q1. INSTALLATION
Q2. EASE-OF-USE
Q3. TYPE OF LASER
Q4. MATERIALS
Q5. APPLICATIONS
Q6. COMPARISON
Q1.
What is required for the laser cutter INSTALLATION?
A1. In general, you will
need 1) floor space, 2) electrical, 3) cooling water, 4) cutting
gas and 5) exhaust.
1.1 FLOOR SPACE:
After deciding what type of laser cutter will suit your needs,
we will supply figures for the 'footprint' required by the
machine and give you an idea of space required for the loading
and unloading areas. For example, the MLC 4x4 model
requires a total of 12' x 14'. Also, it is important
to consider how our pre-built laser cutter will be moved into
your facilities (e.g. is there a loading dock available?).
1.2 ELECTRICAL: Of course,
the actual electrical load will depend on how much laser power
you require for your cutting application. However, in
general we require 208V, 3-phase power with a neutral and
ground, and provide a fused switch on the laser cutter.
If you have a different voltage, we are able to customize
our system to suit.
1.3 COOLING WATER:
The quantity of cooling water depends on the laser power requirement.
For example, if you need a 100W laser, a minimum of 2 gallons/minute
is usually required. Optionally, a 'chiller' system
could be installed which conserves water instead of sending
it to the drain.
1.4 CUTTING GAS:
Compressed gas is required to disperse the vapours from the
cutting point and also to cool the focusing lens. Typically,
compressed air is all that is required, although for some
applications it is useful to cut with nitrogen.
1.5 EXHAUST: The
exhaust serves to draw the cutting vapours away from both
above and below the cutting plane, limiting the vapours that
reach the machine exterior. The exhaust is also useful
if you are cutting a light fabric, as it holds the material
to the cutting plane. Our requirements are for 1500
cubic feet / minute vented to the outside.
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Q2.
Are your laser cutters EASY TO USE?
A2. Yes, very. Actual
machine operation is simplified by our standard control software,
and we can boast that an operator can be comfortable using
the machine in only 1 day. In fact, most of the skills
required to operate the laser cutter have to do with a knowledge
of optimum cutting speed vs. laser power for each material,
information that we can provide. Also, it is presumed
that you will have a working knowledge of AutoCAD or some other design software
capable of generating Gerber or DXF formatted files.
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Q3.
What TYPE OF LASER do you use?
A3. The preferred laser
OEM in our standard products is Synrad for their CO2
lasers. However, we are able to easily customize to
re-use your existing laser or a laser from another manufacturer.
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Q4. What MATERIALS can be cut with your laser cutter?
A4. Please refer to our
Material List for a list of materials
that we have had experience with. However, the type
of material is not the only consideration. The answer
to this question will also vary according to the material
thickness, cutting speed, available laser power, and the type
of cutting gas used. The BEST ANSWER is to contact us and we will be happy to run a test-cut
for you or advise what the best course of action will be.
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Q5. What APPLICATIONS can use your laser cutter?
A5. Please refer to our Applications
List for a list of applications for your laser cutter.
If you have any further questions contact
us.
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Q6.
How does CLC laser cutting compare to knife cutting?
Comparison for Fabric, Cloth, Textiles
Cutting.
AUTOMATED
MULTI-PLY KNIFE CUTTER vs.
AUTOMATED LASER CUTTING SYSTEM
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LASER CUTTER
|
KNIFE
CUTTER |
| 1) |
 |
Very high accuracy. |
 |
Low accuracy. |
| 2) |
|
Edges are sealed for synthetic
materials, no post-cut processing required. |
|
No edge sealing, requires post-cut
processing. |
| 3) |
|
Great for cutting complex and
intricate patterns of arbitrary shapes. |
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Not appropriate for intricate
pattern cutting and needs extra tools to make holes. |
| 4) |
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Non-contact cutting does not
push or distort material being cut, no retooling and no
consumables. |
|
Knife has to be re-sharpened
or replaced. |
| 5) |
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Perfect for any type of fabric. |
|
Not all materials can be knife
cut. |
| 6) |
|
Environmental friendly, no lint,
quiet, and consumes less energy as no vacuum system is
needed to compress cloth. |
|
Produces lint, is noisy and consumes
large amounts of energy due to high power vacuum system
used to compress cloth. |
| 7) |
|
Converyorized transport system
with automatic material feeder gives constant flow of
material. |
|
Material spreading is very labour
intensive and takes up a large portion of manufacturing
space, automated spreading table costs up to $250,000
US. |
| 8) |
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Very flexible, fast turn around
and perfect for just-in-time manufacturing. |
|
Not suitable for automated manufacturing.
Long preparation process and unloading is not automated. |
| 9) |
|
Simple system, very low maintenance
cost. |
|
Complicated mechanical parts,
software dependent, therefore difficult to improve. |
| 10) |
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Better material utilization,
waste is only at the end of the roll. |
|
More material waste. |
| 11) |
|
Low operating cost. |
|
High operating cost. |
| 12) |
|
Can cut limited number of layers,
depending on type of material. |
|
Can usually cut more layers at
a time. |
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