Laser cutter transmissive window

[CRW512]

I am cutting a fabric material using a laser cutter. It can be difficult to cut this particular material because wrinkles easily and does lie flat.

I would like to use some kind of glass plate to hold down the work piece. Is there a glass material that is NIR transmissive enough to not be cut by the laser and that is readily available in sheets?

 

[CRW512]

I meant to write that the work material does NOT lie flat.

 

[IRstuff]

The best you can really hope for is to have two pieces on either side of the cut. Your laser is presumably focussed on the workpiece, which means that anything actually touching the workpiece will be seeing a high energy flux, and possibly some heat from the cutting itself. Additionally, anything that you can see through will change the focus of the laser.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[krugtech]

you need some kind of vacuum bed

Chris Krug

http://krugtech.com/

 

[kendalsimon]

we had a similar problem cutting woven mesh on our Amada LC alpha, 2 solutions, that particular machine has a contact head with ball bearings that push the sheet down. The other was to make a picture frame jig, ie 2 sheets with big cut outs in, sandwiching the material to be cut, we hinged ours for ease of use