Laser question

[Paul Downes]

I am thinking about an application that would require very thin lines cut through thin material. How thin will a laser cut. I'm thinking about something on the order of .010" wide. This would be in heavy tape.

[Dave Johnson29]

How thin will a laser cut. I'm thinking about something on the order of .010" wide. This would be in heavy tape.


Hi Paul,

How much money do you have? :) A standard 2" focal length lens Plano Convex has a dot size of about 0.006". A 1.5" focal gets down to around 0.004" diameter. There are other types of focusing lenses but the dollar is the guide.

It also depends on what you are cutting as to how wide the kerf is. Can you give us a little more detail for a better answer.

[Paul Downes]

I'd rather not at this point:D I'm researching an invention of sorts and if I can pull it off i may be hiring someone with a laser to make some stuff. But thanks for the reply. Your answer is very helpful.

[Dan Hintz]

We don't need to know the specific application, but we do need to know the material type, material thickness, expected accuracy, etc. What is the tape made of? How thick is it? Does it need to be in a specific position on the tape every time, or would lines being relative only to each other be enough?

If focused properly, a 2.0" lens will get your a spot size / kerf of 5 mils... assuming the thickness of most masking tapes, kerf width will be the same through the depth of the tape. A 1.5" lens will get you 3 mils, and a high-density optic will get you closer to 1.5 mils.

[Paul Downes]

Well, I finally got my brain in gear and called my brother. He is in charge of marketing for engineering innovation for a major electronics co. Something like 600 engineers work for him. Previously he worked for major laser companies and was in charge of marketing and R&D engineering for their products. Duhh, I have one of the worlds experts a phone call away. He worked o lot on new laser markers. :o

The material is not determined yet. I will be calling 3m soon to pick their brains. I'm sure they make something suitable. The accuracy needs to be somewhere around +- .003 " over 2 ft.

[Dan Hintz]

The material is not determined yet. I will be calling 3m soon to pick their brains. I'm sure they make something suitable. The accuracy needs to be somewhere around +- .003 " over 2 ft.

That kind of accuracy is not unreasonable to expect, though you will want to measure points at the extents of the table and possibly change the correction factors to some zon-zero value. To keep the accuracy, you will certainly want to take extra care of your motion system (free from debris, etc.). If you're talking about 24" square (rather than 24" x 18" or less), you'll be looking at the ILS series from ULS, the Legend from Epilog, the Speedy500 by Trotec, etc.