Laser Cutting Foam

[James80]

I need to laser cut some foam, styrofoam and was wondering what thickness to go up to relative to the cutting of acrylic. So my machine will go to 4mm depth 35w.
But I basically don't want to buy loads of the stuff to find out it goes hideous at a certain thickness.
Anyone got any experience laser cutting foam?
Cheers

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[zax15uk]

James, I wouldn't recommend a laser for styrofoam. It can be done, and with great results but the cost will be much higher than using a hot wire cutter.

In my experience with a 40W CO2 laser the foam melts and you can't get nice crisp corners or edges.

The limitation on depth will be the lens focus length. You won't have any trouble cutting inch thick foam but the cut may not be square due to the beam divergence.

Zax.

[James80]

No problem, although thinking about it, I really ment packaging foam, rather than styrofoam in the similar form to polystyrene.

Cheers

[zax15uk]

Polystyrene is a thermoplastic so will also melt during cutting but may provide better results (not great though).

Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) will yield results like I described for Extruded Polystyrene.

Styrofoam is a trade name for Extruded Polystyrene owned by Dow Chemicals.

A router or hot wire cutter works better for EPS in my experience but depending on your application the laser may be acceptable.

Zax.