The AUT Rapid Prototyping Lab has a Universal Laser X660 laser cutter. This machine can cut and engrave a variety of materials including acrylic, wood, MDF, fabrics, etc.

The specifications of the machine are as follows:

• 457.2mm x 812.8mm (32"x18") Work Area
• Cross-Platform Compatibility With All ULS Air-Cooled Quick Change Laser Cartridges™ (Patented)
• 60W C02 laser
• Auto Focus and Red Dot Pointer standard

Note to students: This is NOT a lazy cutter. It is a sophisticated tool that you should only use to cut things that you could not cut by hand. If you come with jobs that you should be doing by hand, you will not be allowed to use the laser cutter.

Laser cutting costs

The following costs apply to AUT students. Industry charges for laser cutting are based on a linear meter charge and vary from material to material depending on the speed at which it can be cut. This can be quite difficult to calculate, so we have adopted a much simpler pricing structure as shown below (note that these prices are a guideline only, and may be revised for extremely complex work):

SHEET SIZE		COST
A3 (420mm x 297mm)		$5
A2 (594mm x 420mm)		$10
MAX (812.8mm wide x 457.2mm)		$15

Please remember, also, that you must bring your own material, and that ti should be cut down to a size that will fit in the machine (so no larger than 812.8mm wide x 457.2mm.

Setting up your work for laser cutting

You must supply your own material! Please check with Rapid Prototyping Lab staff that your material is suitable for laser cutting. The laser cutter dos NOT cut metals. It also does not cut some plastics, such as PVC, that release toxic gases.

ALWAYS SWITCH ON THE OUTSIDE EXTRACTOR FAN BEFORE CUTTING!

Never leave the laser cutter unattended. When laser cutting there is always a risk of fire. Note the position of the fire extinguisher on the wall next to the laser cutter.

Your artwork needs to be prepared in a 2D drawing program. The most common of these would be Adobe Illustrator, so the notes below refer to Adobe Illustrator but should be similar if you are using a different drawing program.

Note: Please setup your artwork as per the notes below BEFORE coming to the Rapid Prototyping Lab. If your artwork is not ready for cutting, you will be sent away to get it ready.

Note: If you are cutting Acrylic, please remove the protective paper from the Acrylic BEFORE coming to the Rapid Prototyping Lab. This will save people waiting in the cue while you waste their time removing your protective paper.

The laser cutter works in a manner similar to a conventional printer, except that the colours you use in your drawing determine the power and speed settings of the laser. So, for example, you might set all the BLACK lines in your drawing to be cut all the way through the material, while the BLUE lines might only engrave the material.

An Adobe Illustrator template is available HERE. This contains the correct paper size as well as a colour group with all the right colours for laser cutting.

Useful Tips

• Set your document 'colour mode' to RGB colour. The laser cutter printer driver will NOT recognize CMYK colours.
• Set your page size to 812.8mm wide x 457.2mm high (so LANDSCAPE format). This will match the cutting table size of the laser cutter so that wherever you position your artwork on the paper will be the position that it is cut on the laser cutter.
• For any lines that you want to cut all the way through the material, set the line thickness to 0.1pt (note: make sure that it is 0.1pt, and not 0.1mm), We suggest you make these lines black. Note that in RGB colour mode black is defined as 0,0,0. When you look at the colour of your lines, if you are not seeing that as 0,0,0 then it is not black, so will not cut correctly!
• For lines or artwork you want engraved, you can use any width of line you want. However use a different colour to the lines you want cut all the way through. We suggest you use BLUE (pure blue, in RGB colour mode would be 0,0,255). If you want to have different sections of your artwork engraved to different depths, you can use a different colour for different parts of the artwork. The laser cutter allows you to set up to 8 different power settings. Each power setting is defined by the line colours, being Black (0,0,0), Blue (0,0,255), Red (255,0,0), Green (0,255,0), Yellow (255,255,0), Cyan (0,255,255), Magenta (255,0,255) and Orange (255,175,0).
• Always make sure the focus on the laser cutter is correct. Ask one of the Rapid Prototyping Lab staff to show you how to do this the first time. This is critical. If the focus on the laser is not correct, your cutting or engraving will not be good.
• Always ensure that the orientation of the page in the little preview window of the 'Print' screen matches the orientation of the material in the machine.
• It is often worth doing a small test cut to make sure your power settings are correct.
• If your cut is not good, and your focus and power settings is correct, it could be because the optics and lenses on the laser cutter are dirty. Please ask a staff member to show you how to clean the lenses.