CNC Laser Engraving Drywall (Sheetrock Gyproc and Gyprock)
A customer asked me the other day if we can CNC laser engrave drywall, also known as Sheetrock Gyproc and Gyprock. I’m unsure as to what application you would actually WANT to CNC laser engrave drywall but we’ve had pretty unique requirements come to us, there are plenty of alternatives to directly engraving drywall and honestly, any of those are superior to what you see being demonstrated here.
WE DO NOT LASER ENGRAVE OR ETCH DRYWALL FOR CUSTOMERS.
I got some Drywall (Sheetrock Gyproc and Gyprock) in the shop so I put in a small sheet of it in the CNC laser to see what kind of results we can achieve with this material. The top surface is paper and the inside white stuff is a mix of stone and other materials that I can only guess.
The engraving goal here was to vaporise the paper but also get a little into the drywall itself to create some depth. Based on the speed and depth achieved with our CNC laser settings, drywall has some cement or stone in it for sure!
We’ve engraved and cut tons of paper so this process is relatively fast, the results are pretty sharp too! Lots of great CNC laser mini-explosions all across the surface being engraved!
The real test engraving any material is smaller text, the big maple leaf shows the inner cornering precision we are able to achieve with our Austrian CNC laser while the small text shows the resolution we can achieve. Both are essentially the same thing but just shown different for quick visual inspection.
Once the engraving was done, a quick shot with the air compressor showed that none of the soot, just like stone and brick, sticks to the surface. Drywall is incredibly dry!
I took a wider shot to give a better perspective of this recently CNC laser engraved drywall. I wouldn’t use a CNC laser to cut through this material, the amount of power would be nuts and it would also be an incredibly SLOW process throwing any potential return on investment in the garbage.
This drywall will go in our sample case, it’s a great test lab to see how long material lasts being bumped and scraped. You can see a video of the entire process start to finish below.
Short of vinyl or PVC, there really has yet to be a material we can’t engrave, etch, mark or cut using our Austrian Trotec Speedy 400 flexx laser.
Having a dual sourced laser is a massive advantage that our customers take full advantage of, so should you if you aren’t a customer YET! Contact us!
CNC fiber annealing on the left, CNC fiber marking on the right.