Laser Cutting Paper Without Burning

Laser cutting is a high-precision process that creates intricate designs and patterns on paper.

The most common question for laser cutting paper is: "How do I laser cut paper without burning it?"

Good process control and optimal parameters are the answer to laser cutting paper without edge burns.

Laser cutting paper requires relatively little laser power (about 10-15W) and high cutting speed

degree to perform a clean cut without burning the edges. The fast and high precision of the laser cutting machine allows

Allows to cut complex designs with fast cycle times for high throughput.

Laser cutters work by burning, melting, and evaporating material using a high-energy laser beam.

When laser cutting paper, the paper absorbs the energy of the laser beam and evaporates almost instantly.

However, the ability to catch fire almost instantly can cause the paper to burn excessively. So, how to make a clean cut of paper with a laser cutter?

Doing several test runs and maintaining good process control is necessary to obtain good quality decoupage with no or minimal burns.

There are multiple steps in the process of laser cutting paper, and each step needs to be regulated to achieve good cutting quality.

ready to design
The process of achieving quality laser cutting starts with a good design.

It also defines the order of laser cutting design elements.

All elements of the design should be wider than the thickness of the paper to maintain the structural integrity of the cut section.

When laser cutting complex designs, the cutting order should be set to always cut the innermost pattern of the design first.

This is because once the part is cut, it falls onto the table and further cutting of the dropped part is not feasible.

Using good  laser engraver / cutter software will simplify the process of designing (CAD), converting designs to G-code (CAM), and controlling process parameters.

Additionally, you can use nesting software to optimize design layouts and maximize material utilization by reducing waste.

cutting speed

The dwell time of the laser determines the amount of heat supplied to the material at a particular point.

It directly affects the amount of material removed in the process.

The longer the residence time, the higher the heat provided and the higher the amount of material removed.

Paper is a low-density material that is easily laser cut and does not require a lot of heat to be laser cut or engraved.

Long dwell times can cause the paper to overheat, resulting in edge charring and overburning.

Therefore, higher cutting speeds are recommended when laser cutting paper to minimize dwell time.

However, when cutting complex designs, the laser head constantly changes direction, limiting the maximum speed the laser head can achieve.

Therefore, even after setting the optimal parameters, the dwell time increases and leads to overburning of the edges.

The solution is to perform complex cuts using lower power and speed settings.

In general, for large cuts like outer borders, a cutting speed of 6 ips (150mm/sec) and about 15 - 20W of power is recommended.

For complex cuts, a lower cutting speed of 1.2 ips (30mm/sec) and a power of approximately 9 - 10W is recommended.