Laser material approval request: Melamine resin

[apropos]

Hi! I have some melamine tiles I would like to etch with a laser. These are melamine resin tiles, not melamine mixed with wood or particleboard or anything. I have had success lasering this at my old hackspace (particularly when using some painter’s tape to prevent staining).

Melamine resin is commonly used for Mahjong tiles and kitchen (particularly camping) foodware. It is similar in feel and function to acrylic.

Product information

• Melamine Mahjong tiles: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F1XZFX74
• Composition: Thermoset melamine formaldehyde
• MSDS: https://comcoinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/SD1005_H.pdf

Safety information

There is some mixed information online about melamine – wooden-backed melamine is also common material, which has different properties than melamine resin, or pure melamine. (I’m making this request for melamine resin.)

• Here is someone discussing laser-cutting melamine tiles on the Glowforge forms: https://community.glowforge.com/t/laser-safe-mahjong-tiles/141294. The original poster says that melamine is known for “dangerous off-gassing”, but someone questions this in the comments, saying that melamine is no dangerous than most other non-PVC plastics. Neither commenter cites sources.
• Here is a laser cutter company listing melamine as an approved material: https://help.forwardedu.com/inksmith-knowledge-base/what-are-the-recommended-materials-for-laser-cutters#:~:text=melamine

Inspection of the MSDS for melamine resin (note that there are also MSDSes for powdered melamine, which has different characteristics) notes the following Hazardous decomposition products: smoke, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide. This strikes me as okay. The MSDS also notes in its Hazard statements that melamine resin may form combustable dust concentrations in the air. This also strikes me as okay, given that Conditions to avoid in the MSDS says “Dust generation without adequate ventilation”, and given the laser cutter’s ventilation.

I would like to request the Laser Cutter Committee to approve this material! Thanks for all your hard work, we all owe you a beer.

[adheesh]

This was approved by the LCC conditionally for engraving only.

[ddq]

@apropos if you don’t mind please report back after you’ve had a chance to try it.

It would be good to know power/speed settings that worked well, and your best guess of the stinkiness factor relative to other materials. Then we can add this material to the wiki for others to use.

Happy lasering!

[apropos]

On my old hackspace’s laser, 100mm/s and 20% power with air assist on and painter’s tape atop the melamine (to prevent flare) worked pretty well. These same settings appear to work well here! My melamine tiles are too tall to focus properly on, however, so I was unfocused by about 8mm, so quite likely less power will also work well. The stinkiness appears low. It takes only one refresh cycle of the air monitor to clear out, even close to the lower left edge.

I’ll update once I’m engraving focused, i.e., at a consistent level of power. Since I am engraving tiles, I went with the approach of cutting a jig in some scrap to engrave the tiles perfectly accurately, but one-at-a-time…

Here’s what two unfocused passes at 100mm/sec and 20% power looks like. The first I did with painters’ tape, the second without. Some flare was produced on the second pass but it didn’t seem to bond to the plastic and was easily wiped off. I think that if the laser was properly focused, the painters’ tape would be more necessary, but maybe not. Useful regardless!