Optimizing Acrylic Settings

Applies to: all AEON CO2 lasers

This guide collects settings for working with acrylic. It covers etching, engraving, scoring and cutting, with tips for each. Treat every setting here as a suggestion: your machine may need further testing to find what works best.

When to use this guide

Use it as a reference when you first set up your machine for acrylic, or before you start a production run with acrylic.

What you need

• Acrylic material
• Computer

Before you start

This guide assumes a basic understanding of machine settings and laser terminology. For general information on finding settings, see Understanding Materials and Settings for a CO2 Laser.

The parameters below are representative examples, and your machine may need different values for the best result. As a basic principle, slower speeds and higher power give deeper engraving or cutting, and faster speeds and lower power give shallower results.

Contact paper

Acrylic usually comes with a protective layer of contact paper. Contact paper helps prevent defects such as scorching and burn marks, and keeps dust and debris off the material and the engraved product.

Contact paper adds thickness that you need to compensate for. It is generally 0.0001” to 0.001” (0.00254 mm to 0.0254 mm) thick. If the machine is calibrated for bare acrylic, or the paper is not compensated for properly, you risk the wrong penetration depth or adhesive residue on the final product.

Whether you work with or without contact paper is up to you. It mainly affects processes that use lower power or higher speed, such as the etching or engraving pictured above.

Speed and power reference

The sections below refer to these ranges.

Etching

For an etch, find a balance of speed and power that only just penetrates the material, generally 0.0001” to 0.0005” (0.00254 mm to 0.0127 mm) deep. Contact paper can have a significant effect at depths this shallow, so adjust your settings to suit.

• Use MID to HIGH speeds with LOW power.
• Set Mode to Fill in LightBurn.

Engraving

For an engrave, find a balance of speed and power that penetrates the material to a depth greater than 0.005” (0.127 mm). Lower speeds generally give cleaner results but take longer. Faster speeds cut production time but risk a loss of quality, so some experimentation may be needed. Contact paper can be an issue for a shallow engrave, but much less so than for etching.

• The full range of LOW to HIGH speeds and powers will engrave acrylic, so many combinations work.
• For a shallow engrave, use MID to HIGH speeds and LOW to MID power.
• For a deep engrave, use LOW to MID speeds and MID to HIGH power.
• Set Mode to Fill in LightBurn.

Scoring

A score is a shallow cut that does not sever the material. Scoring settings depend heavily on the wattage of the laser tube. A 100 W tube cuts through 1/8” acrylic much faster than a 60 W tube, so adjust speed and power to match.

• Use slow speeds for the best line quality. Scoring too fast can cause wobbles in the lines. Start between the CUT speeds and the very low end of the LOW speeds.
• Use LOW to MID power, depending on the depth you want.
• Pits can form at the start and end of a line, where the laser first pulses. To reduce them, set the Min power in LightBurn 5–10% lower.
• Set Mode to Line in LightBurn.

Cutting

The ideal cutting settings depend on material thickness and tube wattage. There is generally one speed that works best for a given thickness. The goal is a relatively smooth edge.

• Use CUT speeds and power. Thicker acrylic cuts better at the lower end of the CUT speed range, and thinner acrylic generally cuts well at the higher end.
• The speed or power needed depends heavily on thickness. Thinner material can be cut faster at the same power, or with less power at the same speed. If you use several thicknesses, test quality against speed for each one.
• Set Mode to Line in LightBurn.

Summary

These settings are a starting point, so tailor them to your machine through testing. Keep variables such as contact paper and tube wattage in mind and adjust for them, and you will get clean, precise results on acrylic.