Acrylic is a popular material for laser engraving because of its smooth surface, durability, and wide range of applications. Black acrylic is especially suitable for creating clear and high-contrast engraving effects, making it commonly used for DIY crafts, signs, decorations, and customized products.
In this guide, we use the Longer Nano Pro laser engraving machine as an example to test the engraving effect on black cast acrylic. The article explains material selection, parameter settings, and the engraving results to help users achieve better acrylic engraving quality.
1. Material Selection: Cast Acrylic vs. Extruded Acrylic
According to different manufacturing processes, acrylic sheets are generally divided into two types:
- Cast acrylic
- Extruded acrylic
Different production methods affect the material characteristics and engraving performance.
Cast Acrylic
The casting process heats acrylic particles into a molten state and pours the material into a mold for cooling and solidification. Its characteristics include:
- Better adaptability for complex shapes
- More suitable for detailed processing
- Slightly lower surface smoothness compared with extruded acrylic
In this test, cast acrylic is selected as the engraving material to evaluate the engraving effect of the Longer Nano Pro laser engraver.
Extruded Acrylic
The extrusion process heats acrylic particles and forms them through an extrusion machine. This process provides:
- Higher production efficiency
- Better product consistency
- Smoother surface finish
- Ability to produce larger sheets
Both cast and extruded acrylic have their own advantages. The best choice depends on the requirements of the specific project.
2. Acrylic Laser Engraving Parameter Settings
To achieve clear engraving results, laser parameters need to be adjusted according to the material. In this test, the Longer Nano Pro laser engraving machine was used to engrave images on black cast acrylic. The selected parameters were:
- Speed: 10000 mm/min
- Power: 30%
The engraving image was imported into LightBurn software. After setting the parameters, the actual engraving effect was tested and evaluated. The process is shown below:
Conclusion
The Longer Nano Pro laser engraver can achieve clear grayscale levels and sharp edge details when engraving black cast acrylic. In this test, the parameter combination of 10000 mm/min speed and 30% power delivered good engraving performance.
Acrylic materials made with different production processes have their own advantages in surface smoothness and detail reproduction. Users can select the appropriate acrylic type according to their project needs and fine-tune laser parameters to achieve the best engraving quality.
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