Laser Cut Solder Stencils

[bdring]

I want to make some solder solder paste stencils on my 40W CO2 laser. It appears that the preferred material is Mylar (polyester). What is the recommended power level and speed? What is the recommended thickness. I see on-line dealers sell 3-4mil. What is a good source for the material? Is there anything else I should know?

Thanks.

Bart
www.buildlog.net

[Gaspar]

As for suppliers, check Coated Plastic Films | Adhesive Film Distributor | Project Coating
Ask for HEAT STABILIZED MELINEX polyester film.
I think five mil is standard which will work for fine pitch in general.
As for speed/power, don't know.
Let me know when you are ready. I may be your customer. I'm interested in laser cut stencils. What machine do you have?

[fullspeceng]

We use laser transperency. It's probably mylar but it's treated so that it doesn't melt when it goes through the laser printer's fusing process.

We just print the black and white image, raster it and that's it. Mylar is thin. If you support it ontop of Aluminum or glass, there is no side heat damage. Speed doesn't matter as long as it cuts through. We do it at 100% speed.

Vector cutting it is hit and miss since the beam control is not as even.

We made dozens of stencils this way for our own products including RetinaEngrave USB and the Mach3 control card. We usually use 0603 and .5mm pitch devices.

We have some kapton but it is more expensive and tends to shrink/curl a lot more than the laser transperency.

Full Spectrum Engineering