laser_glossary

#Laser Cutting/Engraving Glossary What do all these words mean?

####A

• ABS: A thermoplastic. It is very tough and resistant to weather, temperature, oils and greases. And it's toxic when laser-cut.
• Air Filter: This is a part of the fume extraction system of the laser. It filters unhealthy particles out of the breathing air and must always be ON when the laser is running.

####B

• Backlash: Low or unequal tension on belts. Motors go to next position, while the tool head is still on its way in the previous direction. Thus, the geometry will not be precise at all.
• Bed: The surface on which your material will be put on.
• Belt: Flexible toothed belts are commonly used to translate a motor's rotation into linear motion of the tool head.

####C

• Cut: One of the two main features of the laser is to move along a path and completely burn away the material under it. You can also use the "Cut" mode for quick markings on the material rather than slowly engraving them.
• CNC: Computer Numerical Control. The computer controls the machine. You control the computer.
• Corner Power: When cutting a sharp corner, the laser has to slow down and change direction. To avoid the stronger burning in these places, you can set "Corner Power" lower than "Power" as compensation.

####D

• Datum: Same as "Homing"

####E

• Endswitch: Tiny switches at one end of each axis (X,Y,Z) that tell the machine where to stop. In fact, these parts are very similar to the ones under your mouse buttons. See homing.
• Engraving: The process of scanning across a vector shape (or an image) and burn the insides of this shape. The engraving depth depends on the material, the speed and the laser power.

####F

• Focus: Small area of highest concentration of laser energy. This has to be set according to your material height, or else the cut will be unprecise or even fail.

####G

• G-Code: The machine language that most 3D printers understand. Its a plain text (.txt/.g/.nc/.gcode/...) file that is generated from 3D geometry coordinates and tells the machine where to go and what to do there. Also, some humans claim they are able to 'read' G-Code.
• GRBL: A high performance, low cost motion control for CNC milling. This translates the G-Code commands into pulses for the motors, heaters and/or lasers. It will run on Arduino (Atmega 328).

####H

• Home/Homing: Before a print job starts, the machine needs to know where the toolhead is. This is simply done by slowly moving backwards in X and Y direction until an endswitch is hit. This position is then set to 0 or 'home'. For example, if you move the toolhead by hand to the middle of the bed and then start a job without homing, it will likely crash into the machine frame because it tries to reach a position that is outside of the build area.

####I

####J

####K

####L

####M

####N

####O

• Open Source:

####P

• Power: The amount of laser energy that is released. In the LaserCut software, this is from 0-100%, but setting it lower than 10% will not produce a laser beam!

####Q

• Quality: When engraving, the "scan gap" value in the LaserCut software determines the quality. When cutting, there are many more factors. In most cases, however, cutting slower will help.

####R

• Resolution:

####S

• Scan Gap: Distance between two scan lines in the engraving process. 0.05mm is high resolution.
• Scanning: When the toolhead (or laser) moves back and forth over a shape, its called a scan.
• Speed: This setting controls the cut or engrave speed (mm/s). Engraving can go up to 600mm/s, cutting should be done slower than 40mm/s.
• Stepper Motor: High-precision motors that move the toolhead or the work area.

####T

####U

####V

####W

####X

• X-Axis: The left-right axis of your machine's toolhead.

####Y

• Y-Axis: The forward-back axis of your machine's toolhead.

####Z

• Z-Axis: The up-down axis of your machine's toolhead or print bed.
• Zero: Home position of the toolhead.

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