I leaned something this week and wanted to share in case it’ll help someone else in the future.
We cut glitter cardstock at my work. The laser kept burning the white, pink, and silver to a crisp. We couldn’t figure out what was going on.
We found two solutions:
Setting the minimum settings as low as they could go while still strong enough to cut the cardstock helped.
I adjusted our air output to the lowest setting. It was too high and blowing all the soot onto the cardstock and (I think) melting it to the glitter.
They are still a little crispy but I’m guessing that comes with burning paper, but it anyone has more suggestions I’d be happy to try them and see of I can get even better results.
I am so grateful for the forum and I hope this helps someone else one day.
This was requested in different context a few time, but to date I see no confirmation that anyone tried or reported results.
I’ve suggested to use non-flammable gas for air assist, similar to MIG welding. Ideally any inert gas (that can be pricey), bit cheap CO2 (gas, not the laser) will do as well.
Some sources to try can be paint ball CO2 tanks. They are relatively cheap to try. If works - industrial high pressure tank can last a lifetime. Also need "regulator " to control the flow.
Oh ya. It’s actually single and double sided glitter cardstock. I think it takes all that power to get through the glue and glitter. We can run the power and 25 but it doesn’t come out nearly as clean at 20 power it mostly just engraves it.
It would be good to determine if the ‘burn’ is from too much heat to cut associated with a slow speed.
The other options is the one @LsrSal advised you might have to depend on air assist to help out. If that extends to a special gas…?
I cut out all of my alignment targets from water color paper and my baking parchment paper. My experience with paper is low air pressure is best, mainly for lens protection. However your specific material may be different.
There a many variations that will cut. There is a limited area where it cuts the best, so I’d suggest you try adjusting power/speed by small amounts to find the best combination that works best.
