Whether you need a few prototypes or production quantities our laser cutting services can help you produce the products you require. Lasers are widely used in todays manufacturing environment to service an ever growing demand for high precision, burr free components that can easily be revised without incurring high setup fees and expensive tooling charges.

Laser cutting services are solidifying their place in the global market through benefits such as shorter lead times, higher precision, better repeatability from part to part and a cleaner surface that does not require secondary deburing processing. Stencils Unlimited offers laser cutting using state of the art UV, IR, and CO2 laser systems. Stencils Unlimited has chosen UV and IR LPKF lasers.

UV laser cutting services:
While used for a wide variety of materials typically this type of laser is used for:

Very thin metals

• Requiring ultra fine details
• Having handling concerns
• Necessity for non contact cutting

Polyimides such as Kapton or Cirlex

Flex circuit excising, ablation and manufacture

• LF Coverlay
• FR Adhesives

Micro via drilling

LPKF UV Laser System

Materials we can process with this laser:
=/< .003" metal foils
Kapton
Cirlex
Mylar
Carbon film
FR4/G10
LF coverylay
RF adhesives
3M double sided adhesives
Alumina (unfired ceramic)
And many more

Sample of UV Laser Cut Part

Primary advantages of using UV LPKF lasers are:

Clean non contact burr free cutting

Minimal heat affected zone

Extremely fine contours

Through hole drilling down to 75um

Cutting and drilling of dissimilar materials in a muti-layer material in one job

Automatic fiducial recognition for precise laser to work surface alignment

Industries serviced include:

Medical devices

Micro electronics

Aerospace

Engineering/Design

Anyone requiring high precision or fine details

Maximum table size: 25"x22"
Maximum material thickness: (varies by material)

IR Laser cutting services:
Inferred systems are typically used for cutting metals. Similar to a cutting torch process the laser heats up the metal to a molten state and high pressure air blows away the molten material leaving a smooth edge.

High precision motion systems controlled by linear motors and calibrated with glass scales provide a very high level of X/Y table movement, down to the micron level. With the ability to focus the beam down to 35um spot sizes and the extreme accuracy of the motion systems metals up to .020" thickness can be processed with +/- .001" or better tolerances.

LPKF IR Laser System

Materials laser cut with this system include:

Stainless Steel

Kovar

Mild Steel

Blue Tempered Spring Steel

Invar

Nickel

Copper (up to .010")

Brass (up to .010")

Titanium

And more

Sample of IR Laser Cut Part

Primary advantages of using IR LPKF lasers are:

Highest precision in laser technology

Stability of the beam for consistent cuts

Little to no slag

No burrs to remove

No disfiguring of the material from punching or stamping

Low cost for prototypes and short runs

Rarely requiring any tooling for setups

Quickly able to change cad and resend to the laser

Industries serviced include:

Medical devices

Micro electronics

Aerospace

Engineering/Design

Anyone requiring high precision or fine details

CO2 laser cutting services:
Co2 lasers allow us to expand out services into thicker metal processing, fired ceramics, and acrylic type materials that would otherwise burn, melt, or not cut with UV and IR laser systems. While the setup and data preparation are not as simplistic as the UV and IR laser systems the added capabilities more than compensate for this minor inconvenience. A much larger variety of materials can be processed with Co2 lasers.

CO2 Laser System

Materials laser cut with this system are:

Metals

• Kovar
• Lead
• Mild Steel
• Molybdenum
• Phosphor Bronze
• Stainless Steel
• Braze Preform

Sample of C02 Laser Cut Part

Ceramics

• Alumina (90% - 99.9%)
• Aluminum Nitride
• Beryllium Oxide (BeO)
• Green Tape
• HTCC
• LTCC
• Quartz

Plastics

• ABS
• Acrylic
• Delrin
• G10
• GFK
• Kapton
• Kevlar
• KFK
• PE
• Rubber
• Teflon

Other material

• Cardboard
• Duroid
• Epoxy
• Felt
• Fiberglass
• FR-4
• Low Temperature Glass
• Paper
• Styrofoam
• Wood

Primary advantages of using Co2 lasers are:

Maintaining high tolerances in ceramic and plastic materials up to 100"

Ability to laser cut thicker materials

The wide range of materials that can be processed

500 watts of power

Industries serviced include:

Medical devices

Micro electronics

Aerospace

Engineering/Design

Anyone requiring high precision or fine details

Preferred data formats:
There are many forms of acceptable data. The following is a list of data formats that are acceptable for laser design files to be submitted in: Gerber, DXF, DWG, HP-GL, and HP-GL2 are the primary formats accepted. Please note that it is a good idea to include a PDF drawing of the data provided for reference.

Considerations in data generation:
When designing a product or part that is intended for laser cutting it is important to know that quite often the primary cost driver is laser time. There are ways that you can design your data to be more efficient while cutting or for preparation before it gets to the laser. A few simple rules are as follows:

• Always design arcs as true arcs. This will decrease the number of data points in the generated file. With the high precision of laser systems comes the ability to recognize very small vectors. The laser will start and stop or at least slow down at each one of these vector data points. This can easily multiply your laser time by better than 4x. There are other advantages to designing files with true arcs that are not related to cost but may affect the ability to transfer larger files. The fewer data points in the file the smaller the file size will be. Always try to minimize the number of data points in the file when creating a design.
• Always separate your layers. If you have text, dimensions, and the design if they import into the cad software in one layer then the cad operator or person processing the quotation will have to separate these layers before they can begin working on your data.
• Always complete the title block. Quite often quotes will be slowed down by a day or two because there is incomplete or no information in the title block. The most critical components are: Material, thickness, and tolerances.