CNC Laser Engraving and Cutting Cardboard Extravaganza
I know cardboard is plentiful and boring right? Wrong… this is a CNC laser engraving and cutting cardboard extravaganza!
Let’s dive deeper across a whole bunch of different types of cardboard and layouts to show you the versatility we can offer CNCROi.com customers across a host of materials. You can pretty much replace the cardboard you see in the videos and links below with just about any other material from laminate to steel, plastics to woods.
Before we go too crazy, let’s start with a simple white sheet of cardboard, the dimensions are easy to work with as it optimizing it for cutting the most samples for our latest mail out and handouts.
After engraving the cardboard, yes, we can ENGRAVE cardboard… even regular paper in your laser printer… it was time to cut out the stencil. The precision is awesome and repeatable as you’ll see in this production run of about 200.
Each stencil is cut perfectly, you can stack them up and see all the way through. There are always a few pieces that get “stuck” but they are easily taken care of, it just happens the air compressed them into the stencil instead of out of the stencil.
Looking at it close-up, you can see zero smoke damage or vapor, why? Because CNCROi.com knows what it’s doing! We’ve done A LOT of cardboard stencils, A LOT! Our settings are dialed-in!
Alright, that was fun right? Time to move to something a bit more challenging… Kellogg’s Raisin Bran boxes! First, we’ll do the easy stuff, the large front (and back) of the box panels. Please note, cereal boxes were harmed during the production of these stencils.
Due to the light weight of this cardboard and the “spaces” in-between them, I had to use some hold down, in this case, scrap CNCROi.com 304 stainless steel business cards. These are rejects from a project we did earlier and material testing is what they are used for hence.
We are able to just as easily engrave these cardboard boxes as the others, the only difference is that these ones have a cool graphic which we vaporise off.
The next step, like the other cardboard boxes, is cutting out the stencil then the outline so they become a business card sized promo piece.
This cardboard is more sturdy and thicker than the previous white one, makes no difference, it engraves and cuts the same with a few tweaks.
The result is the same, awesome handouts… I will be making a slight modification to this design next time around, I forgot to add the CNCROi.com logo on them! People getting these will think, wow, that’s awesome… who made it?
Now let’s complicate things a bit more, slender pieces of Kellogg’s Raisin Bran, these are the side panels, so far more narrow and the more narrow the pieces, the more they love to fly up when being engraved or cut due to our high velocity extraction system and compressor.
These 304 SS metal business cards do the trick nicely, holding everything down. They have a good weight to them and are flat, so they won’t bang-up against the overhead gantry.
Much like the previous engravings and cuttings of cardboard, this is done with zero defects or alignment issues. Why? Because we have the best CNC laser engraver on the market, an Austrian Trotec Speedy 400 flexx. In this case, we are using our CO2 laser source but it can just as easily have been stainless steel blanks or anodized aluminum, in which case, we’d use our fiber laser source. Both are in the same machine!
Watch the video of this being engraved and cut too!
Next on the list is a piece of cardboard from a recent order of acrylic we had delivered to our shop. All these cardboard pieces were cut with a box cutter to be flat by the way… it’s quicker than using a laser and even if things aren’t straight, we know how to make the most out of every sheet so very little ends-up in the recycle box.
Engraving is the first process, this makes sure each cardboard sample is perfect, if we cut it first, they may shift by a mm or two and the result would be alignment issues as the air going around in the machine would move them around.
That’s why we engrave first, laser cut the stencil second and then cut them out of the cardboard in the final step.
As you can see, each is completely identical to the other. They are all straight and the laser easily goes through all of them.
CNCROi.com still used hold down metal business cards, when you have a large flat piece like this, it isn’t really needed but there is never any harm from doing more than needed to prevent problems down the line.
The reason for the gap in the middle is due to a defect in the cardboard, we don’t want that on our cardboard stencil promos so we just cut above and below them. How’s that for being efficient!
Next on the docket are the sides of the box that held our acrylic sheets, these were all cut smaller by the way on purpose. The box cutter isn’t very good at cutting straight lines, that’s why we have a CNC laser!
The metal business cards are put across and at the ends to prevent bowing, not much of an issue as the heat just doesn’t stay with cardboard but sometimes with materials such as thin acrylic or metal when it’s being fiber annealed, the heat distorts the material. After annealing one of our 304 stainless steel business cards, I’m sure you don’t want to stick it in your pocket before it had time to cool!
The layout of these cardboard promo pieces was optimized manually, there are automated nesting programs that we have but for something this easy, it isn’t needed at all.
How many times of we cleaned our lens since starting this big production run? Zero. Why? Because we have fantastic extraction of the cardboard smoke and the air compressor is also keeping vapors away from the lens.
Watch the video of this cardboard being CNC laser engraved and cut too!
Next step is something a bit more challenging. We got an odd-shaped box that we want to cut into stencils that’s a bunch of different dimensions depending on where you are on it. I want to get as much cut out of it with as little source material left after.
Not a problem, we’ve done things far more complex than this in the past, it’s just a matter of taking your time with measurements and optimizing the results across the board. It may be hard to see, but to complicate things, there are “folding lines” on this as well… we don’t want this on our cardboard promo pieces so we got to go around them.
One of the challenges with a CNC laser is that all the work is permanent, meaning if I was “off” by a cm or an inch in either way in my calculations and design, I would have scrapped a lot of material here. This is where practice makes perfect, to lessen the possibility that this may happen when it REALLY COUNTS!
Our Austrian CNC laser cuts out the stencil in the order of “making”, so if I made the stencil in the top left first then the next in the bottom right, the laser will move from top left to bottom right even if there are lots of stencils in-between.
Regardless, the process is the same, engraving and then cutting.
CNCROi.com has a wide variety of lenses to fit any type of clearance requirements on our projects, in this case, we just used our flexx lens, which is pretty much our default for CO2 projects involving cutting or engraving across a wide variety of materials.
This took a bit more set-up than the previous cardboard boxes but the results are the same, awesome cardboard promotional stencils!
Let’s see how well this cut out? Lifting the scrap cardboard is easily done and then all you see are the custom promotional cardboard stencils.
Taking a look at the scrap, you can see I really couldn’t have optimized things better. What wasn’t cut through had folding lines and cuts.
Watch the video of this one as well.
CNCROi.com can cut, engrave, etch and mark just about any material, have a project needing some custom CNC work? Contact us today!
