PDA

View Full Version : Acrylic sheet



Jeff Chumbley
04-18-2006, 11:25 PM
I have a quick question about extruded acrylic. Well I guess any sheet acrylic I guess.
Can you vector cut thru the protective cover of the acrylic the way you receive it?
I have an order for 7000 1 x 2 pieces vector cut. I really don't want to have to clean smoke residue off each piece
Jeff

Lee DeRaud
04-18-2006, 11:45 PM
Paper cover? Yes...probably. The plastic film some comes with, obviously no.

Worst case, peel off the OEM stuff and replace with paper transfer tape.

Jeff Chumbley
04-19-2006, 12:27 AM
So you think that the paper cover that has the elasticity to it should be ok? You pull the paper off and there is a membrane of some sort that can be seen as you pull it off.


I know that you can't or shouldn't laser thru the plastic covering that they use on the, say Romark plastics.


Jeff

Lee DeRaud
04-19-2006, 1:20 AM
Try a piece with the original masking...I did say "probably".:p

I think that "membrane" you speak of is just the adhesive that holds the paper masking on. The paper transfer tape has a lot less tack than the factory cover.

Rodne Gold
04-19-2006, 1:56 AM
Just laser cut it with paper/plastic and all , try get extruded for this job for 2 reasons , 1) its cuts with a better edge and 2) it is FAR better than cast in terms of thickness tolerances (cast can vary up to 15-20% thickness over a sheet)
We have been cutting pex for over 5 yrs with lasers with the coverings on. Be aware that solvents used on the pex piece (like if the client wants to screen on it using solvent based inks) can cause stress cracks , extruded would be worse for this than cast - but both are suceptible to this as the laser puts huge heat stress into the material. Use a grid type arrangement when cutting this IE dont cut discrete squares , let the squares share cutlines. Will save you almost 50% time on this job.

Joe Pelonio
04-19-2006, 12:26 PM
I leave the original paper on the bottom and remove the top to rastor, then apply transfer tape to vector cut. With the extruded, the blue plastic film cuts just fine, but is harder to remove since the edges are sort of welded to the acrylic. Again I replace it with transfer tape. After cutting transfer tape is a lot easier to remove than the plastic film or the original paper. When I get a job with thousands of pieces I pay one of the kids to peel off the transfer tape.

Rodne Gold
04-19-2006, 1:05 PM
Yeh , you have a different covering to ours , I think ours is *horror* pvc based but i never get a remelt into the edges. Generally very easy to remove. I always tend to supply to the customer with both sides intact as it minimises any damage to the processed pieces. Makes a good resist for blasting too , if we have large areas to frost , we vector cut the backing and sandblast for a far smoother finish. the fact the laser has outlined the blasted area is nice effect.
I always hated the paper and gum backings , they were always difficult to remove and if the sheet was old , almost impossible - not used here anymore.

Joe Pelonio
04-19-2006, 4:42 PM
I always hated the paper and gum backings , they were always difficult to remove and if the sheet was old , almost impossible - not used here anymore.
Rodne,

I agree about the old paper covering, in fact I'll return it if it's that bad, since the supplier is next door. It will also do that very quickly if stored in a place where the sun hits it, but generally the brand I use (Chemcast) comes off easily.

Jeff Chumbley
04-20-2006, 9:52 AM
Thank you to all for the information. I should be receiveing a ton of material today to start this project.

Jeff