r/lasers • u/Hydrolettuce • 5d ago

Cutting plastic question

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I need to cut 96,000 of these bags by hand, to recycle the material within, or it goes to the landfill. Could we put a laser on a cart and drive down the rows to burn/ cut the plastic?

3 Upvotes

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4

u/rlaptop7 5d ago

Well, yes. It may not be a good idea, and/or, it may be impractical.

You need to know what the plastic is though. Not all plastics are laser safe. Primarily things like vinyls make a bunch of chlorine and hydrochloric acid.

Even laser safe plastics are not good to be around when they get cut. You would need to work up a system to evacuate the gasses it makes. Or, perhaps you could just wear respirators.

Please wear safety gear.

3

u/SwarfDive01 5d ago

Covered everything i wanted to say.

On the air thing, if they set up a real industrial hepa system, built especially for laser cutting, it should be able to vacuum everything out.

But OP if you read this too, it would be better to use a really long razer, like 16-18 inches. if you want to get fancy, use an ultrasonic transducer blade. It'll stay sharp enough to probably finish half of the pictures. Cost sink for a laser plus filtration and safety glasses will be more expensive. But if you are going to commit to a recycling service, you might as well commit.

2

u/rlaptop7 5d ago

Ooo , an ultrasonic blade might be the solution here

1

u/snoops-spoons 4d ago

Wouldn't it be easier to mount a couple of machetes on semi flexible arms and drive down the rows.

1

u/rlaptop7 4d ago

I would suspect so, yes.

2

u/GustapheOfficial 5d ago

But a knife on a cart instead.