Laser Cutting Micro Joints

I found a project by dimitris papanikolaou from the mit fab lab that was the bomb diggity.

Laser cutting micro joints.

Micro joints allow you to attach small components to sheets. First ablative laser cutting can be used to make partial cuts in a material whereas laser fusion cutting can only be used to cut all the way through it. Vacco s multi fab group offers micro laser services for precision laser cutting micro welding marking or other machining. Laser cutting is widely used by industrial designers and mechanical engineers as a rapid modeling tool.

Nesting parts in cypcut for laser cutting english duration. This is due to fusion cutting operating with lasers either in continuous waves or with significantly longer pulses than ablative cutting micro or milliseconds vs. Laser cut examples after looking through various industry resources i decided to examine the snap fi t joint presense in laser cutting. With no cam software that s designed for the machine.

However after cutting a small burr remains on the product. Lantek automatic micro joints duration. Joinery the system described in the instructable was developed to facilitate the generation of customizable joints for laser cut assemblies. The method is based on small interconnecting tabs between the parts created by programming spacing of the shearing or slitting punch.

Complete systems can be provided from the dual laser r d workstations to semi automatic and fully automatic systems. Nanoseconds which causes a molten pool to penetrate the entire depth of the metal. Ipg s quasi cw lasers and ultrafast pico and femtosecond lasers are commonly used in micro cutting applications. But how do you remove these micro joints easily and quickly without undesirable changes to the contour of the product.

However designing and fabricating laser cut assemblies can be a complex and tedious process especially for novice designers. 4x4 500 watt fiber laser 17 206 views. I found some awesome examples that inspired me and demonstrated how creative you can be when combining joint techniques. Micro joints shake and break is a popular name for this easy method of separating multiple parts from a sheet of material.

A minimal part of the contour will not be cut through. One of their fiber laser had intelligent software that would cut 90 of the material and then at the end drive by and snip the micro joints that held everything together. Vacco s laser capabilities are complementary to the markets served because of the demands placed for complete fabricated components on a turnkey basis.