Cutting polystyrene

[Niklas Bjornestal]

How "fast" can polystyrene be cut with a laser compared to acrylic for the same thickness? Is it about the same speed? faster? slower?
I need to price a job where they want 5mm polystyrene or acrylic, i have some acrylic to check the cutting speed, but since polystyrene is cheaper to buy and "softer" i think it should be faster to cut to -> better price for the costumer and bigger chance to get the job ;)

[Justin Harrington]

With a 75watt Epilog I cut polystyrene at 100% speed regardless of thickness and it goes through like butter, much quicker than perspex.

[Joe Pelonio]

I have cut it too, and you have to cut if faster or you will get a ridge on the edge from the melt.

[Rodne Gold]

Expanded polystyrene or solid stuff?

[Niklas Bjornestal]

I think its should be solid since they wanted polystyrene or acrylic.
The job should be done using 5mm thick material.

[Niklas Bjornestal]

With a 75watt Epilog I cut polystyrene at 100% speed regardless of thickness and it goes through like butter, much quicker than perspex.

I have cut it too, and you have to cut if faster or you will get a ridge on the edge from the melt.
Is that foam or solid polystyrene?

[Rodne Gold]

I have cut huge quantities of 1.2mm thick solid for stencils , I use the same settings as 1.2mm ABS and got a clean burr free non discoloured edge.
The big issue was massive amounts of white powder deposit that went in every crevice of the machine.
I have also cut 12mm expanded which worked well.

[Niklas Bjornestal]

I have cut huge quantities of 1.2mm thick solid for stencils , I use the same settings as 1.2mm ABS and got a clean burr free non discoloured edge.
The big issue was massive amounts of white powder deposit that went in every crevice of the machine.
I have also cut 12mm expanded which worked well.

How is it compared to acrylic? Is it slower or faster to cut than acrylic?

[Rodne Gold]

I can't really say as I haven't cut 3/5/6mm styrene so cant compare to acrylic. You need to look at the application as to what to use - I'm not sure how strene holds up over time or UV or what structural properties it has and how all this matters to the client.

[Niklas Bjornestal]

I just noticed that some of rowmarks plastics for rotary engraving has abs core (for example mattes series), so I'll just the max speed to cut that compared with the ones with acrylic core. Should give some sort of indication about how easy it is to cut, assuming that polystyrene and abs is "similar" to cut.

[Robert Walters]

The big issue was massive amounts of white powder deposit that went in every crevice of the machine.

Rodney,

Is this a dry powdery residue (dust), or more like a film (solidified vapor)?

Do you get this same "powder" deposit when cutting EPS?


I'm interested in playing with EPS a little, but not at the cost of the machine/optics getting gunked up.

[Rodne Gold]

It's like a powdery substance , I don't think its vapour related in that its not a gas deposit or a smoke damage thing. Was very evident on large run jobs. It didnt have any ill effects apart from having to clean the machine to the smallest parts.
I had no issues with the expanded stuff. Only the solid. Thing is , most of these stencils were one or 2 use items , made for a chain of over 100 stores , each store got 12 stencils to use for an ad/sales campaign , styrene was the cheapest to use.
Stencils were about 800mm x 200mm and used a stencil font. The styrene was also "softer" than abs and was more flexible , thus another reason for its use.