Some thoughts requested

[mojoreef]

I have been asked to do a pretty good sized job cutting a plastic product that has stickers on top of it. Cutting the material with the stickers is no problem, but the sticker have a tolerance level that dictates they can be be NOT straight on basically every sheet. To combat they are marked with reference points. So I have a couple of questions to try and solve this issue .

1. is their an attachment optical system that can be attached to my laser that would read the reference point and adjust automatically?
2. If their is not does nay one of you wise souls have ideas about Jigs or methods to get pas this?

Thanks in advance

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[Storen]

Sure, attaching a camera system is very common. However, it is not easy and it would require some serious technical skill. It may be easier and better to just sell your current machine and get a new one with an installed camera.

What controller do you have?
What is a "pretty good sized job"?

[mojoreef]

Thanks for the reply Storen!

the controller is a RD 6442s. The job is worth about 20K a month gross.

What the job is to cut 1/16 acrylic that has Stickers applied on it. When they attach the sticker its not always perfect ( as in could be slightly out of line) so to combat this when printing the stickers (solid sheet on top of the acrylic) they have reference marks on them.

[mattcnc123]

You can not find easily any laser that equipped with camera , and also yours have not.

but as your job worth a lot you can buy a cnc router with camera .

if you decide on this I can help you.

send me the photo of your job with sticker if possible.

[Storen]

You can not find easily any laser that equipped with camera , and also yours have not.

but as your job worth a lot you can buy a cnc router with camera .

Not true. All major brands (without exception) offer camera systems.

[Storen]

Thanks for the reply Storen!

the controller is a RD 6442s. The job is worth about 20K a month gross.

What the job is to cut 1/16 acrylic that has Stickers applied on it. When they attach the sticker its not always perfect ( as in could be slightly out of line) so to combat this when printing the stickers (solid sheet on top of the acrylic) they have reference marks on them.

RuiDa (the company that makes your controller) offers camera upgrade packages. As far I know the prices start at around $800 (low resolution, black and white) and go up to $2000 for the more advanced models. You will have to change the controller. The industrial cameras are relatively big and would reduce the work-bed size by several inches.
There is another option - to use a low-cost USB camera with LightBurn - link, however, I've never done it and I don't know how well it works.

Since you expect to make more than 10K a month with this, my advice is to save your time and just buy a reliable machine with a camera.
If you need the machine only for low-speed cutting (acrylic) get a quote from - GCC link and ask them for a machine with a DC Tube (glass). They have 2-3 options. The price is going to be significantly lower than that of a machine with RF Tube (standard for them). GCC is the only major brand that offers such downgrades.
If you expect to use the machine for engraving and cutting check with Trotec - link
Both companies offer cameras with alignment feature recognition.

If you decide to do it yourself, please let us know how it goes. I am super curious.

[fixtureman1]

Is the acrylic solid color or is it opaque. If you can see through it you could put register marks on your table and align to them

[mojoreef]

Thanks again for the replies.

I was looking at the Rudia controllers with camera and they dont seem that complicated of an install (perhaps the setting them up??) the units we have are full table, So a 10 foot by 6 foot and we have two of them. I dont think an 800 dollar up grade on the controller with camera does seem simple. I dont think buying another unit is something we can afford at this time. If I were to purchase a unit with camera is their something complex to its installation that I am not seeing? this project is something out of the scope of what we normally use the Lasers for (cutting and engraving multiple thicknesses of acrylic for Aquarium manufacturing so I think that just changing the laser controller and adding the optical that it comes with wouldn't interfere with the machines original purpose??

Fixtureman the acrylic isnt clear and the even if it was the stickers are solid colors, but thanks for the thought.

I was also wondering if they were maybe some kind of Jig that could be built in order to do this also??

[Storen]

I agree, since now we are talking about big and heavy machines, replacing them for the sake of adding a small camera doesn't make sense. Upgrading the machine seems the right approach.
Replacing the controller should be fairly easy - unplug the cables from the old one and plug them into the new. You could just copy the settings from the old controller. Installing the camera could be a little bit more challenging but certainly doable. I imagine you'll need a custom bracket.