Material Approval Request to cut Duralar on the laser cutter

General lounge
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Hi:

Question for the Laser Cutting Committee.

I’m wondering if Duralar sheets can be added as an approved material for the laser cutter.

I’ve picked up 3 sheets of 005 mil Graphix Clear Duralar film from Opus Art Supplies.
Each sheet is 25"x40" and costs $4 per sheet.

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I plan to make large stencils for art pieces as well as pcb solder paste stencils

Common Names: boPET, PET film
Chemical Names: poly(ethylene terephthalate)

The MSDS indicates that this material is not a “health hazard”

The Graphix Spec Sheet indicates that they do laser cut this material for their clients.

I’ve come this post where someone has laser cut pcbs mylar stencils Duralar/Mylar are trade names for polyester film products

Universal Laser Systems data page says Duralar is laserable but provides the following cautions

"Cautions
PET cutting produces flammable vapors. Always use adequate ventilation and never leave a PET cutting operation unattanded. "

These would be fairly fast cuts as these sheets are 5 mil (thousandths of an inch) so I would expect the cutting time and corresponding fumes to be kept to a minimum.

Thoughts?

Mark

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We’ve been trialling PETG for a while without issue, PET seems reasonable as well.
I’ve added them to the laser wiki page.

FWIW, My cuts with PETG it tended to be a little “melty-er” than acrylic.

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Just curious what speed/power settings did you use? I will use these as a starting point.

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Don’t recall, sorry.

I run material tests each time.

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Check out some cool non-laser stuff this guy is doing with PET:

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For anyone who is curious. I got really nice stencils for .005 duralar running at 70 Speed 40 Power.

It is a bit smokey but cuts are pretty fast. Just leave the laser door closed for a few minutes to clear out the smoke first,

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