Bed for very large fabric laser cutter

Hi.

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Tldr:
If I was facing a task like that, I&#;d probably cut it on top of a slightly raised glass sheet.
Raised, for reducing the possibility that the reflected beam ruins the fabric, and for allowing adjustment for absolute flatness.

bernieke:

I was thinking either a simple flat steel sheet, but off course I&#;ll be getting a lot of reflection that way.

True, but the edges of the cuts will be charred anyway, so a bit of extra charring shouldn&#;t matter much?
Easy to try how badly the reflections char the fabric.

However, using a flat steel will be a challenge though because:

ednisley:

The key problem: maintaining sufficient flatness over that huge area, because a millimeter up or down will put the fabric out of focus.

+1

bernieke:

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I can buy a x non-expanded block of 1cm thick aluminum honeycomb quite cheaply: 19.1mm (3/4") Aluminium Honeycomb; 10mm, 20mm, 30mm - Easy Composites

The obvious question first:
Do You have the means to expand a block that size at location?
Once expanded, the honeycomb core can&#;t be moved much before it&#;s skinned.

At one point I had the idea of making ultra lightweight musical instrument bodies out of 50mm honeycomb and either aluminium or carbon fiber skins, but controlled expanding of the block proved to be quite challenging, and I had only 500x500mm slab (when expanded) to worry about.
That idea was put into the backburner (along with many other similarily wild ones ), but should I pursue it at some point, I&#;ll corrugate 50mm wide strips of aluminium, and glue them together to form the core.

In any case, any composite core like that is extremely flexible without the skins by design, it has to be able to follow the possible contours of the skins.
So You&#;d need a knife edge hatch of ~50x50mm under it.

With a purpose made honeycomb, You&#;ll get by with ~300*300mm hatch.
Even the galvanized steel 600x600 honeycomb beds droop in the middle wihout support
And a purpose made honeycomb of that size will be guaranteed to cost dearly.

The material being aluminium, it has the added disadvantage of being non-magnetic, makes taking the wrinkles out by tightening the fabric without the possibility to use magnets a real PITA.

bernieke:

I also read that there should be room below the honeycomb for the gases to escape, or is this not important for a low power application like this?

It&#;s always essential when cutting materials that produce flammable gasses when cut with a laser.
If there isn&#;t adequate ventilation, at some point the mixture will ignite and at least blow the fabric up, ruining the cut, or at worst, light the fabric -and most likely the machine as well- on fire.
And no-one wants that.

Regards,
Sam

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