Tests & results

Experiment 2: acylic plate (3 mm)

After setting-up everything, we start engraving by clicking on Start button. The result of the material test is shown in (1). From the result obtained, we can say that it is impossible to engrave/cut on a translucent acrylic because it reflects the laser beam and so the beam is distracted and dispersed, which make sense because the wavelength of the laser is 450nm which is visible light (blue color). 

- Therefore, in order to engrave/cut on acrylic plates, we have only two methods. Either paint the plate with any color or use colored acrylic plates. Firstly, we painted the acrylic plate with black paint and retried the material test, and the result is shown in (2). Secondly, we brought colorful acrylic plates and retried the material test, and the result is shown in (3).

- After applying the material test, we started doing small projects, such as: medal keys using the black acrylic material as shown in (4).

- After applying different experiments with different thicknesses, we are able to prepare the following Table that demonstrates the engraving parameters settings for acrylic.

Therefore, in order to cut an acrylic of 3mm thickness, we need to adjust the parameters to be 100 mm/min for the speed, 100% of the laser power, and 1 pass.