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Thread: Dice engraving - PVC risks ?

  1. #1

    Dice engraving - PVC risks ?

    Hi there,

    I did some dice engraving recently and i just realized that it could not be very safe.


    Dice are in "plastic" and i don't know their composition.


    I had assumed that it would be safe... As i cannot conceive the idea of producing a blank dice that wouldn't be laser engravable.

    Now, i realize that it could contain PVC or another type of material that is not workable with a laser.

    Did you ever face this problem ?

    Some advices ?
    IEHK IE1200 60w (+ rotary attachment)
    Lasercut 5.3

  2. #2
    Hi Philippe, you'd want to do a flame test on one of them. It's listed on here somewhere, but I can't find it right now. You heat up a paper clip or metal object, stick it on the die to melt a little bit onto the paper clip, then you put that in front of a torch. The color it burns will tell you if it is acrylic or PVC. Search around the forum for it, or maybe someone else can locate it quickly and repost a link to that thread. It was years ago when it was posted.
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  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by Philippe Lecomte View Post
    Hi there,
    I did some dice engraving recently and i just realized that it could not be very safe.
    Dice are in "plastic" and i don't know their composition.
    I had assumed that it would be safe... As i cannot conceive the idea of producing a blank dice that wouldn't be laser engravable.
    Now, i realize that it could contain PVC or another type of material that is not workable with a laser.

    Did you ever face this problem ?

    Some advices ?
    Why don't you contact the place you purchased from?
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Suwanee, GA
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    3,686
    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Shepherd View Post
    Hi Philippe, you'd want to do a flame test on one of them. It's listed on here somewhere, but I can't find it right now. You heat up a paper clip or metal object, stick it on the die to melt a little bit onto the paper clip, then you put that in front of a torch. The color it burns will tell you if it is acrylic or PVC. Search around the forum for it, or maybe someone else can locate it quickly and repost a link to that thread. It was years ago when it was posted.
    It needs to be bare copper wire. Heat the wire to red hot then melt a bit of the material with the wire then place it back in the flame. A green tint indicates PVC.

  5. #5
    Good to know Gary, it's been a long time since I read that and I didn't remember the copper bit. Thanks for adding that, along with the method for telling if it's PVC.
    Lasers : Trotec Speedy 300 75W, Trotec Speedy 300 80W, Galvo Fiber Laser 20W
    Printers : Mimaki UJF-6042 UV Flatbed Printer , HP Designjet L26500 61" Wide Format Latex Printer, Summa S140-T 48" Vinyl Plotter
    Router : ShopBot 48" x 96" CNC Router Rotary Engravers : (2) Xenetech XOT 16 x 25 Rotary Engravers

    Real name Steve but that name was taken on the forum. Used Middle name. Call me Steve or Scott, doesn't matter.

  6. #6
    Hi,

    I did some tests and all was ok.

    It's not ever easy to contact the manufaturer of the product you are engraving.

    If you need to test your laserable material, i found this very useful reference that i uploaded on my google drive :
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6d...ew?usp=sharing

    I hope you'll make good use of it to identify which polymer you are engraving.

    Thanks for the help.

    Philippe
    IEHK IE1200 60w (+ rotary attachment)
    Lasercut 5.3

  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Location
    Platte City Missouri
    Posts
    138
    Thank you, I found this very helpful.

    Roy
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    Roy Sanders
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    Platte City, Missouri. USA

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  8. #8
    Unfortunetly most of the big dice suppliers don't use the same materials each time for all their batches. I've ordered hundreds of dice from one and some of them tested positive for chlorine (PVC) and some didn't.
    -Pete B
    ULS PS-50; Epilog 32 (30 watt); Epilog Radus (100 watt); Epilog Legend 24TT (30 watt).

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