Trotec Speedy300

[alan evans]

Hi everyone, This is my first post on this site so hopefully its going to be enlightening.
I use a Trotec speedy 300 laser machine to cut 1/8 and 1/4" acrylic panels for an assembly.
I have noticed that from day one the edge finish on the X and Y axis has been acceptable BUT the combined axis movement X+Y edge finish is really BAD.
As I'm sure you know the velocity entered on the machine is fixed and cannot be manipulated like on a CNC machine.
Does anyone have any ideas how to improve this condition as Trotec are absent in answering the question.

Also I'm experiencing a small burr on the top side of the cut panels and find I have to scrap them off which is time consuming before assembly.
Any advise would be welcome.

[Kev Williams]

On the small burr, that can be helped by masking the side you're cutting with vinyl-sign transfer tape. Use it even if you're cutting already-masked material...

the 'combined movement' can be 'fixed' but it can be a bit of a cumbersome PIA depending on the actual shapes, but it's part of the fun of being IN this business

What to do, is to break your cut lines whereever curves and straight lines intersect.
Next, group all straight lines and outline-color them RED (or whatever color you like),
then group all curved lines and outline color them, say BLUE for this experiment...

Here's a box with rounded corners, I broke all the lines apart at the points, ungrouped it all,
and changed the colors to red=straight, blue=curved:
brokenpoints.jpg
so this way I can now set the blue and red cuts to laser at different speeds & power...

Now you'll have to experiment with your BLUE cuts, because you're going to cut them separately, at A MUCH SLOWER SPEED, and less power, and maybe more passes; that's what you need to figure out-- how slow is slow enough to result in smooth cutting, and the power required at the slower speed...

Another way would be to just slow down the entire cutting process, but that eats a lot of time...

If you're doing very complicated cuts, breaking apart would get counterproductive, see 'slow it all down' above

yet another way that may would would be to add control points to the curves-- but how to do that-? In Corel you can add control points -aka nodes- by double-clicking on a line when using the 'shape tool' in wireframe view, just add nodes between the existing nodes... The reason this may work is because may machines follow XY coordinates at faster speeds when there's a certain amount of space between points, and SLOWER speeds when the points are closer together. You're Trotec's engraving program should do this automatically, regardless of points, as a function of the firmware. If Trotec ever gets back to you, ASK them if there's a firmware update that will slow down the cutting speeds along curves, that would definitely be the easiest fix!

>edit< just thought of something else-- if you cut STRAIGHT but on an ANGLE, is the cut line nice & smooth, or choppy? IF CHOPPY, you may have a mechanical issue, like a loose pulley or other screw, loose belt, or maybe the belt is too TIGHT...

[Mike Null]

Have you experimented with the hertz setting in your materials sheet? A higher number will produce a smoother cut.

The software automatically adjusts speed on curves.

[Chase Williams]

If all of that fails call Trotec support, they have some stuff they can do in the service menu for power compensation on curves.