honeycomb material?

[Bruce Boone]

I'm looking for a source of fine cell aluminum honeycomb as a cutting surface for a new fiber laser I'm building. Maybe 1/4" cells and an inch or so thick, and at least a foot square. Does anyone have a good source for that? I've tried a few companies without luck so far.

[Cheryl Walsh]

Is this what you're looking for?236605

[Bruce Boone]

Ideally it would be small cells like the material at the top of your picture. I plan on cutting earrings and similar small items.

[Glen Monaghan]

The bottom, square cell stuff appears to be aluminum egg crate diffuser for fluorescent lighting.

-Glen

[Mike Null]

Bruce

do a search for honeycomb grid or aircraft structural grid. There are several suppliers but I found their minimum to be too high.

Another material you might find useful is Nomex in a honeycomb. It can't be used in a co2 as it will melt.

[Jiten Patel]

Bruce

This place does it in the UK so not sure if they will ship to the states - but worth asking - http://www.easycomposites.co.uk/Category/Core-Materials/Aluminium-Honeycomb.aspx

[Gary Hair]

Try this - http://www.bing.com/search?setmkt=en-US&q=aluminum+eggcrate+panels

[Robert Farrell]

Hi Burce I got some here. mcmasterdotcom the company is mcmaster-carr

[matthew knott]

Hi Bruce, i would have thought the honeycomb would be a bad choice of material for a cutting bed for a fibre laser, our little 20 would cut into it like a hot knife through butter, it would last for a very short time and and you would get material pickup. I would think a pin table setup would serve your purpose better. What are you building then ? sounds exciting !!

[Bruce Boone]

I did find a supplier of the material at Plascore. McMaster Carr only seemed to have very large cell stuff. I had gotten some from them in the past. I'll have it cut in 9.6 x 16" sizes and raise the honeycomb up on some kind of rack so high pressure nitrogen can blast through without lifting the material.

The fiber laser is 4500 watts peak power (in 10% duty cycle pulses) and 450 watts continuous. It is so efficient that it is air cooled! I've seen a demo machine blast through 7mm of titanium on one side of a ring blank and continue and blast through the 7mm on the opposite side, and they were only using 3000 watts! I plan to cut very fine sheet, like earrings with a 50 micron spot size, and be able to adjust it up to a 150 micron spot size for thick stuff. That's done with a special optical telescope arrangement that doesn't affect the focus. I found that I can also engrave with the laser. That's a very special technique that we came up with, so I'll keep the details of that secret, but it will be a huge deal to do thin stuff with a .002" kerf, do 7mm+ material, and also engrave, all with the same laser. I've looked for years to find this laser. It takes about the same power as a hair dryer!

[matthew knott]

Sounds awesome, what sort of beam delivery are you planing on using? I know a guy that designs cutting nozzels and delivery heads, sure he would give you some free advise (if you need any). Be good to see some photos of the work when you get it fired up, good luck with the project!

[Bruce Boone]

I'm checking into both Laser Mech and Haas Laser for the cutting head. We need to do some special tricks to vary the beam width. Everything is sized from the fiber size, and focal length and the collimator dictate the spot size. I had trials run with an SPI 400 watt, but that had a fiber size of 15 microns and a spot size of 30 microns, which limited what it could do. Great for stents, but not for real thick stuff. It stopped at around 2.5mm thick titanium. It also peaks out at 400 watts, and pulsing that one only gives fractions of the 400 watts.

[matthew knott]

I'm checking into both Laser Mech and Haas Laser for the cutting head. We need to do some special tricks to vary the beam width. Everything is sized from the fiber size, and focal length and the collimator dictate the spot size. I had trials run with an SPI 400 watt, but that had a fiber size of 15 microns and a spot size of 30 microns, which limited what it could do. Great for stents, but not for real thick stuff. It stopped at around 2.5mm thick titanium. It also peaks out at 400 watts, and pulsing that one only gives fractions of the 400 watts.
I have used Haas cutting heads, nice bits of kit but the Laser Mech look really nice, i would get some advise from them on the cutting bed, i have never seen the honeycomb material used on anything other than low power CO2 lasers. It might work for you on really thin sheet and its cheap so no harm in trying. Be fun integrating all to a cnc system, be interested to see what the engraving is like with such a machine.

[Bruce Boone]

Laser Mech was the brand I saw a lot at the R & D facility. They had cabinets full of them. Haas was used for their ability to change spot size. This was used in drilling holes of different sizes. Both look pretty capable. I guess they should be, in that they are the price of a small car. I am asking it to do some tricks they are not used to, so I'll have to compare pricing and the options for the future, like Z following and video through the nozzle. There are tons of (expensive) addons possible. I get a quote from Haas next week. Fiber technology is so cool in that it would also be possible to split the beam with a switch and have a galvo and a cutting head from the same beam. It can actually be split up to six ways to go to six different machines! Not that I can foresee using it, but it will be able to weld as well. It will definitely have capability to grow into.

It's rare to see a machine with so much power working on small delicate parts. That's why honeycomb isn't used much. They did use it at their R & D facility to test stuff. It should be reversable, and it is relatively cheap. I'm thinking I will raise it up a couple inches from the floor to keep the beam from going through the box containing the honeycomb and into the machine table!

[Jiten Patel]

That sounds like an amazing project - guessing with some equally amazing costs involved? If you don't mind me asking - does the jewellery business do that well for you or do you dabble in other things?

[Bruce Boone]

It does get expensive. That's why I'm building the system myself, while still in the 6 digit range, it's about a third of the cost of a completed system. The rings are my full time job. My last laser paid for itself in a matter of months and I expect this one will do the same. I spec'ed both machines to do things that others can't do. That allows a niche market that does very well. It also opens up the possibility of other products that aren't really being made now. I just yesterday had a realization of a new type of design for stone set rings that I think could do really well that aren't being made now. It's also a tax write off, and the way I figure it, it's a much better investment than the stock market if it allows a bunch of possibilities that weren't there before. When things get busy, they get really busy. I've had many days lately where we earn more in a day than I did in a whole year when putting myself through college.

[walter hofmann]

Hi there
did you look at marcos honeycomb??
like here http://www.lightobject.com/400X600-Honeycomb-for-CO2-Laser-Machine-P706.aspx
greetings
walt

[Bruce Boone]

Walt, those are nice. I'll be using an unconventional size since it will ride on the table of a Tormach CNC, which doesn't have that much travel.

I'll need to have the housing for the cutbox fabricated and formed by a sheet metal shop as well as having a full enclosure made. The beam is powerful enough and such a short infrared wavelength that the eye will focus it and blind you before you ever knew it was reflecting off of something. It takes a special laser glass window rated for that wavelength and power to be able to see the laser run. The windows are expensive, and it will be only 100 x 200mm, which is the same as what's on my YAG laser.

[Craig Matheny]

Bruce what type of price is it and do they cut to size? being it is the weekend I cant call

[Bruce Boone]

Craig, I got 24 pieces, 9.6" x 16" for $302, which included tax and shipping. They should be reversable, and could be flipped left/ right if I only use a small part of the surface on most parts. The panels have 1/4" cells and it is 1" thick.

They do cut to size. I used those dimensions because of the sheet it comes out of is 48" x 96".