A friend of mine makes items like small tool pouches from Balisitic Nyon and Codura, cutting them by hand. I suggested Laser Cutting them out - anyone have experience cutting this materail, and suggested power and speeds. I have an HL1060 - 100watt machine.
Thanks
Pat
Hopefully somebody with a better answer jumps in, but generally speaking cutting plastic of any kind is difficult because it does not burn. It melts instead and flows back together.
Then we have the safety issue. Many plastics emit toxic or corrosive gasses when cut with a laser. The first thing to learn is whether or not your materials are “laser safe”.
There are people that cut ballistic nylon and condura with co2 lasers.
They claim an advantage of it sealing up the ends so they don’t fry, saving manufacturing steps.
I’ve seen some with more lightweight nylon and they appear to be a regular glass tube. These were pretty small machines, so I doubt it produced more then 30W.
The ones I’ve seen, have not mentioned any issues with toxic fumes. However keep in mind I don’t do this, I’ve only seen videos. With a co2, more thickness becomes a need for more output power.
Here’s one of the places I’m aware of.
Good luck.
I have seen live a 100W tube CO2 machine cutting fabric for bullet proof vest, even more layers at once, fumes was really a problem so good exhaust is a must.
