Cutting very thin carbon fibre sheet

[Dave Lock]

Hi all,

I did a search on this but didn't really find a definitive answer.

Can anyone tell me if it's possible the cut very thin carbon fibre sheet, around .2mm (.008") thick with a CO2 laser.

If it can be how clean would it cut?

I have a customer who wants to have a watch face made from it!!

Thanks for any advice

Dave.

[Brian Jones FL]

That stuff is very hard to cut. burns before it actually cuts i'd not even think about trying something as detailed as a watch face.

[Dan Hintz]

For such a thin piece, a powerful enough laser would cut it by simply blasting it with a ton o' power (I'd want nothing less than a 100W unit), but you're not going to get a clean look for an item as small as a watch face. For that, I'd use one of those CF look-alike vinyls.

[Dave Lock]

Thanks for the info guys.

I just have 60W so I'll probably struggle then.

The other option is to make him a stencil from some other material so that he can use it to mark the points with luminous paint.

Thanks again

Dave.

[william kaminsky]

For such a thin piece, a powerful enough laser would cut it by simply blasting it with a ton o' power (I'd want nothing less than a 100W unit), but you're not going to get a clean look for an item as small as a watch face. For that, I'd use one of those CF look-alike vinyls.


Friend of mine has a 100-120 watt Coherant and on such stuff has to run the laser full power, and very, very slow. Open up all doors and windows too for it certainly smokes up the place.


Wm.