How to make an original badge from transparent acrylic

A detailed guide on how to make an original badge from transparent acrylic using a 10 DPSS laser and a 40 watt Co2 laser?

Our installation:

– 10 watt DPSS laser
– a DIY galvo system
– acrylic (plexiglass) 4 – 5 mm or thicker
– CoralDraw software
– EzCad laser software

– 40 watt Co2 laser

I have a lot of experiments with acrylic. My idea was to make a 3D image inside it. My conclusion:

An inscription in acrylic is more preferable as its quality is higher than that of any image.
Vector files are better to work with. Raster images are prone to change.

First of all we need to choose the size of the intended name tag.

Mine is 90 x 55 mm.

With these sizes in mind I created a name tag in CorelDraw with the name of the company, my name and contacts. I also tried to add a QR code (with all the necessary info) but failed to make it sharp enough for the cell phone to read it.

But that’s enough, I believe.

Then I saved it as a .dxf file to go on working in EzCad.

So I place a piece of acrylic on the working table and by way of the trial set an optimal focus centrally inside the acrylic workpiece.

When the focus is set, we put a new acrylic on which we will determine the parameters for work. I recommend doing it exactly on the model that we will engrave. Centering. Dxf file into EzCad. Then I fill it in the same way.

Now it is also necessary to determine the parameters empirically. All engraving consists of two parts. First, prepare the acrylic at a slower speed. Then we apply the required text at a higher speed.

I got the best result with:

– power 50%; speed 500 mm / s; repeats 5
– power 50%; speed 800 mm / s; repeats 4

Now we run the same file with known parameters on pure acrylic. Here is the result. Then, for more accuracy, I cut it out with a CO2 laser and attached a strap.