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Six Mistakes To Avoid To Minimize The Costs Of Laser Cutting

There are a variety of different expenses that go into outsourcing laser cutting, including production costs, material costs, and shipping costs. 

Fortunately, there are a lot of things you can do when planning out your laser cutting project to minimize these expenses. The following are six mistakes you need to avoid to minimize the costs of executing your laser cutting job:

Creating a design with double lines

Double cutting refers to any place on your design where the laser will go over the same cut twice. This wastes time and causes you to have to pay double for that particular spot on your design.

Make sure that there are no double lines or overlapping parts in your design to avoid wasting effort on double cutting. 

Not giving material thickness enough consideration

The thickness of a material being laser cut will have an important impact on how much effort it takes to complete the cutting job. Thicker materials will cause the job to take longer and make the job more expensive.

It's therefore in your best interest to put careful consideration into the material and to use softer and thinner materials where possible for a faster and more affordable cut.

Leaving unnecessary details in the design

When it comes to laser cutting, simplicity is ideal. It's a good idea to optimize and fine tune your design with the goal of increasing simplicity while still meeting needs.

Go for larger forms rather than smaller and intricately detailed forms where possible. Also, try to use straight lines rather than circular forms where possible. 

Not printing out prototypes during the design stage

When you're working on optimizing your design, it's often helpful to have a copy printed out rather than trying to work with your prototype on a computer screen.

With a printed-out prototype, you can make marks right on the prototype with a pen to make notes and to get a good idea of what your design will look like once it's been cut.

Neglecting to create a digital prototype

While printing out a hard copy is a good idea when you're optimizing your design, you definitely want to create a digital prototype to use a computer to help you format your design.

Having a digital prototype makes it easy to instantly make edits and resize parts to arrive on the best possible design in an efficient manner.

Failing to group parts close to one another

You can optimize material consumption by minimizing the amount of negative space between parts that you have cut to complete your laser cutting job.

Not only does grouping parts together save on materials, but it also typically results in a more efficient cutting job by minimizing laser movement.

For additional advice, contact a company like Garelick Steel.


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