Technologist: Randy Howerton
Other Team Member(s): Scott Frazier
Date: 3/29/04
Area of Exploration: Laser Machining
Basic Overview of the Process: According to Webster's Dictionary laser stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation (p.556). The first laser was produced in November 1960 by a man named Maiman (CU). A laser uses a light source to heat up a material to either cut through or scribe a picture or letters on the material. Lasers are also used for radar detectors, medial practices for surgery, as a pointer, and many different things. The laser that was used, used either a raster or vector file to reduce the material.
Task Description: The product that will be laser cut with the ULS M-35 is a piece of red acrylic that is 1/8" thick. The product that was made is desk piece that had Beneficence, Ball State University Technology Education, and our names. Then the bottom was bent so that the product can sit on a desk.
Drawings: The drawings were drawn on CorelDraw9. We did not know what we were going to make on the ULS M-35 laser cutter. So we brainstormed and came up with a desk piece. The desk piece was just drawn by how we thought it look the best.
Equipment: The equipment that was used to draw the outline to be cutout and the engravings was CorelDraw9 computer program. To cut and engrave the ULS M-35 laser cutter engraver. And the computer that is hooked up to the ULS M-35 laser cutter and engraver.
Materials: The material that was used was red cast acrylic 12" x 19" x 1/8" to start out with. Then we cut five examples of our design. Each of these were 7 1/2" x 3 3/4" x 1/8" in the longest and widest points.
Steps Followed:
Description of Problems: One problem that was encountered was the fact that when the program was ran it did the cut out first then the picture but it did not do the letters. So then the outline and the picture had to be erased and then the program had to be ran again so that the letters could be put into the acrylic. But the number one thing that we had to keep in mind was that we could not move anything because if we did the process would have to be done all over with the correct line color. Another problem was that we had to copy the side cut out to the other side so it looked the same. This was solved very easily by having Dr. Flowers show us how to copy and move the nodes.
Industrial Applications: Some applications in industry are laser engraving, laser welding, laser drilling, laser surgery.
References:
New Webster's Dictionary. 1995. Lexicon Publications, Inc. page 556. Danbury, CT
Columbia University Laser Laborites: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mechanical/mrl/ntm/level1/ch02/html/l1c02s01.html
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mechanical/mrl/ntm/Glossary.html#LaserMachining
Cary, Howard B.,(2002) "Modern welding technology": Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ
Notes: Make sure that you check what your speed is on for each color before hitting print because it might go back to the default.
Control Programs Developed:
Appendix: Laser worksheet information included.