Low cost laser system cuts, profiles plywood

Quantum Engineering and Design has recently installed a low cost laser cutting system designed for cutting profiled slots in, or plotting on, plywood, and the system can now be made to order

Quantum Engineering and Design, or QED for short has recently installed a low cost laser cutting system designed for cutting profiled slots in, or plotting on, plywood.

The system has a working area of 1.6m x 2.2m but can be configured to customer requirements up to a 2m x 3m cutting area.

The motion system incorporates belt drives and linear encoders for improved performance.

Encoder resolution is 10 micron.

To keep the total system cost down QED has developed its own range of CO2 lasers based on 20 years experience in CO2 laser product development.

Laser power levels uo to 500W are available.

The laser technology adopted was for a reliable low cost solution using known technology rather than state of the 'art' higher cost solutions.

The laser is mounted above the workpiece on the X-Y profiling system.

Hence the workpiece is stationary and the laser moves.

This configuration minimises the machine footprint and ensures consistency of cut slot width by maintaining a constant distance from laser to lens.

The system can cut plywood from 6 to 18mm thick.

For the cutting area of 1.6m x 2.2m the footprint for the machine is only 2.2m x 3.5m.

The laser power supply, which is QED's design, the motion control cabinet and drives are compact enough to fit under the cutting bed to minimise floor space.

The cutting bed height of 800mm allows easy handling of the plywood sheets which are loaded onto the machine from the sides.

Smoke produced during the cutting process is removed by suction on the under side of the plywood sheet.

The system is one of the most compact laser cutting systems around and with a price tag in the region of GBP 65,000 it is also the most competitive.

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