I started this week assignment with vinyl cutting machine , a vinyl cutter is a type of computer-controlled machine it look like computer printers. The computer controls the movement of a sharp blade like a knife. this blade is used to cut out shapes and letters from sheets of thin self-adhesive plastic (vinyl) this is also used for making flexible circuits

for vinyl cutting we have roland GX-24 in our lab and cut studio software so i started vinyl cutting by referring a video on youtube about machine and using cut-studio software

1 About roland GX-24

2 how to use GX-24 for basic vinyl cutting by jeff able at century college fablab

Setting up vinyl roll

first step is to set roll in machine using a lever at back of machine , while inserting roll notice that the roller present there should be at the friction surface (white marks present in the machine ) .

click on force option to check force as we have preforce setting at 70 it depends upon Material Thickness

Setting origin of machine

Test cutting

For test cut first set origin by pressing origin and Once origin of the Roland cutter is set so now press test button , it will make a square in a circle,  I removed the vinyl cut from the main sheet and checked the cutting was properly done or not and it is proper so my force value is okay

Selecting image for cutting

For vinyl cutting you need to generate vector image as machine will cut actual outline of your image , so you need to extract outline of your image so select the image in which you can trace sharp image outlines for ex black and white images give better result ,

Image tracing and Cutting

i use cut studio software for image tracing and cutting process  , this software have its plug-in for adobe illustrator and coral draw so you can use adobe illustrator or corel draw for better image generation .

Steps to use cut studio software

Step 1  : it is to load image in cut-studio ,the image is drag and dropped in the cut studio window or you can import using import option in file menu bar

Cutting

click on the cutting option on the top  , go to properties , you will be asked for width and length if you are not sure click get from machine and set units in mm/inches  and rotate setting to 0or 90 degree than click on okay , machine will start cutting

Transferring Vinyl Cut

For transferring vinyl cut you may use transfer tape generally we use it when it is difficult to directly transfer it , i tried transparent self adhesive tape and paper tape  for experiment but this things are not good and not recommended here this tape is very less adisive to sticker so i used this

Best practices for vinyl cutting

1 for getting right cutting of vinyl sticker must do test cut varing force as it give you correct value of force so your sheet will cut nicely

2 remove the transfer tape slowly

3 you can use twiser for removing vinyl negative part as i am doing this thing

Experiment for exploring effect of image alignment density factor on cutting

For this i reduce down the size of image and place 6 images on screen as shown  write 1-6 below them for indication as image alignment density varies from light to dark from1 to 6

Now i assign different image alignment density to each image from light to dark

I deleted its background to see the lines

Observation

On noticing cutting lines keenly you found in image drawing

    1 no visible cutting lines ,

    2 cutting lines are not clear they are in steps

    3 cutting lines are clear and properly visible

    4 in this cutting lines are clear and properly visible

    5 at vernier holding edges cutting line is not clear

    6 lines are distroted from everywhere in image

Conclusion

it is concluded that the image which is clear in drawing and have visible proper outside lines give proper cutting for this you have

to adjust the image allignment density to the point where you get visible neat and clear cutting lines i also did vinyl cutting in Week 17 and Project development Week refer both week to see my work

                                               Laser Cutting

General steps for operating laser cutting machine

1prepare your drawing file for laser cutting

2 Starting the machine and its accessories

3 set cutting/engraving parameters

4 Setting up material and origin for cutting, focus point

5 Sending file to machine and start the cutting

Prepare your file for laser cutting

Usable formats .DXF

Compile all components in material size which you are going to bring here for cutting. And compile inside the reference box

Delete duplicate and overlapping objects

Join all the single objects and form a close boundary

Use layers/colors to differentiate different operation you want to do on machine

 keep your drawing within 900*1200 mm as this is our bed size of laser machine it may very for any other machine

Minimum distance between two line for full cutting is 1 mm for MDF and Paper, its 3 mm for acrylic

Minimum distance between two line for etching/marking/half cut is 0.3 mm

Send design file for approval should be sent from same person who has booked the slot

For text etching, export it in line format (In Rhino explode text)

Perform a test print which is square of 10 *10 mm

Suitable materials for co2 laser

Allowable materials:

Pine MDF (up to 7 mm thickness)

Plywood (up to 6 mm thickness)

Casted acrylics (up to 15 mm thickness)

Papers

Non plastic boards

Wood (for engraving)

Veneers

Prohibited materials:

Polystyrene, polypropylene, polycarbonate

Plastics containing chlorine and fluorine content based material

Any particle board other than Pine MDF

Rubber (All Forms)

Casting resins

Any kind of Metal

Parametric Desiging of Comb

laser cutting technique which uses high energy laser beam for cutting it is cnc controlled machine so you need to generate 2d  drawing file for this ,it can perform cutting , engraving , marking ,we have 100w co2 laser in our lab of bed size 4* 3 feet

Task setup for this week

1 make comb for checking press fit

2 make parametric construction kit

Making comb for checking press fit

we are asked to make comb on different material and of different thickness so i try to make comb which is parametric and one can use this to test on any material of different thickness so i designed parametric comb i tested this on two material acrylic of 3.10 mm and MDF board  of 2mm

Testing comb on 3.10 mm acrylic sheet ,

Checking parametric comb test on MDF of 2 mm thickness

Correction in comb

In above design of  comb , My regional mentor Ohad  suggest that the comb teeth ( test piece which i am inserting in comb)  should reach to the center of circle so you can determine the correct fitting , so i redesigned the comb test piece and do changes in comb dimension .

Method to change parameter of comb

In this way you easily change the dimension of of comb to check this on different material i did this in 2mm and 3mm mdf get  parametric laser cutting file in fusion 360 ( .f3d format ) here

Setting the parameters in  rd works software i.e  setting the speed and power for cutting this thing depend upon the material thickness and material type

1 See here the teeth go up to center so i can check perfect fitting

2 Here it go inside t-.20 so the kerf of cutting is 0.2 mm  in both

Video of testing here

Parametric Press fit construction kit

we have to design press fit construction  kit which can be assembled in multiple way for this i created a pattern , with notches which you can connect to form multiple press assembly  , i created that in fusion 360

Steps for creating Parametric Pattern

for this create any pattern ( for ex here i am creating a triangular pattern  with side notches so they will get press fit ) make the pattern with exact dimension ( i.e without considering kerf ) to check press fitting of it than measure the kerf and consider that also in designing

Measuring Material thickness and kerf of cutting

on press fitting this comes out loose so i redesign considering kerf

Redesigning the Pattern

Making array of Pattern for laser cutting

Parameters for laser cutting

i am cutting this on 2 mm MDF board so the parameters i choose are in below image

Laser cutting

Testing kerf Pattern

Video of testing pattern

Desiging Pattern and Testing it

Learning from above patterns i start designing pattern for making tiny book cover

Video of testing book

Laser cutting Omni wheel

I Made omni wheel using laser cutting and 3d printing for my final project as my final project , Refer my project development page for design files and assembly of omni wheel