The Laser at th University of Applied Sciences Potsdam (Germany) is currently supervised by the people listed below. For any questions about time slots or further information please contact us over the incom.org platform.

Laser On
  • Open the upper window for the ventilation.
  • Switch on the master switch on the backside.
  • Switch on the ventilation.
  • Check if there is no material within the cutting area.
  • Check if there is enough room between the distance pushbutton, the laser head and the table.
  • Put the keys into the according holes.
  • Is the security switch up?

Warning

The laser does a reference run into the upper right corner. If there is any material in the way you could damage the laser head. If the distance pushbutton is lower then the grid you also will damage the laser. When switching on keep one hand over the emergency switch to shut down everything. Just to be safe.

  • Turn the lower key to turn on the laser.
Setup the Focus
  • Put your material on he table blow the distance head
  • On the control panel push “Z/U”
  • Go to “Autofocus”.
  • One hand over the security switch.
  • confirm the autofocus with “Enter”.

Warning

If the material is not under the blue distance switch you can damage the laser head.

Cutting
  • Minimum and maximum power should be on the same value.
  • Check if your vectors are closed.
  • You can simulate the cut in the software on the upper right corner with the little screen icon.
  • You can simulate your cut with the laser if you don’t switch on the actually laser. This is not done by the software. It needs to be enabled manually.
  • Use the “origin” button on the control panel to set your 0/0 point where the cut should start.
  • Close the coverage.
  • Turn the upper key to switch on the laser.
  • Hit the “confirm” button
  • Start the cut from the software.
Engraving
  • Max resolution is 1000ppi
  • JPG/PNG files get converted to greyscale
  • BMP is also possible
  • closed vector forms can also be engraved

Hint

The software uses greyscale/raster images for engraving. The minimum and maximum greyscale gets mapped onto the power of the laser.

Materials

This is a just short list of already tested materials for cutting. You always should have some spare material for adjusting the power and speed settings of laser.

Materials max. (tested) thickness slot offset comment
grey cardboard 5 mm < 1 mm
corrugated cardboard 5 mm < 1 mm does not work well for tongues and tabs
acrylic 10 mm ≈ 2 mm
MDF 8 mm ≈ 1.5 mm
HDF 8 mm ≈ 1.5 mm