[Flynt]

My partner and I are looking to get into the wedding card business and would like to get some info regarding laser cutters.
We are in the very early stages of planning and therefore do not have alot of knowledge on the laser cutting process.
We would require the cutter to cut mostly card, from simple corner borders to entire cut work panels. We would need to cut between 100 to 1000 (if not more) at a time so would really like an auto feed function like you have on a normal printer. This would be a home based business therefore would not need a massive machine, but one that could cope with our needs.

The cards would be produced on materials varying in quality and size (A6 to A3 and anything in between). So maybe somebody could recommend a suitable machine/s for this?

Also what format would these designs need to be in? Would Adobe Illustrator be ok or does is vary machine to machine?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Litografa]

First of all forget about auto feeder and note that you will cut one sheet only.
Depend from design but generally cutting will be slow. Download card file from here
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=96744
Cutting time was 14 minutes on laser GCC Mercury 40 Wt.
My proposal for you is GCC C180-30 Wt which will be around 8700 Euro. You can cut from Corel Draw for free or from Mac for additional 400 Euro.

You will have here and in PM a lot of advice/proposal buy glass tube laser but I suggest do not buy it due possible problems with cut quality (burned cut)

[Flynt]

Hey, thanks for the advice, but I dont quite understand why I should forget about an Auto feeder?

[Litografa]

Open door - put one sheet of paper on table - close door - cut - open door - remove final product - remove dust/waste - put new sheet and etc. All process is manual

[Flynt]

But if we are cutting up to 1000/2000 cards a week, that would take a long time wouldnt it?

[Litografa]

Quantity is not really important. I have one customer who have Spirit GE 30 Wt and cut over 30 000 cards per month.
KEEP YOU ATTENTION ON FOLLOWING:
1) Design. If you see card file on our site - design is very sofisticated. This is why cutting time is 14 minutes. But if you need just cut few round holes - time of cutting will be seconds.
2) Size of table. You can have small table like on Venus you can do only one card per cycle. Or you can have bigger table like on Mercury, or even BIGGER like on Spirit GE, or EVEN BIGGER like on Spirit GX. If you have bigger table - you can cut 2-4-8-16-32 cards per cycle.
3) Speed of cutting. We usually cut paper on 100% speed and 20-50% power depend from paper. But for Mercury 100% of speed means 20 ips (508 mm/s) and for Spirit 100% of speed means 60 ips ( 1524 mm/s)

One story Customer came to me and say - "I want buy laser to cut puzzles". When we start talking I have understood that customer want make 20-30 sets per day. Laser is acceptable for 1-2 puzzles per day but for 20-30 sets it's not economically effective do this job with laser. I provide to customer information about cutting puzzle machine which cost 800 Euro (compare with laser price).

Attached is tech datas of all GCC product range

[Pandinus]

How about a machine that can cut a stack of card 10 or 20 thick???

One option might be an old printer set up with form feed button...
if the laser table could be set on an angle a simple solenoid could let the finished sheet drop out... only prob I see is reliably clearing the chaff.
That being said, you might be tempted to leave an automated system untended... what if the paper catches fire???

[Litografa]

It's not a laser laser can cut ONLY single sheets with acceptable quality. For stack of sheets - some of stack will be out of focus - means burns or not cutting.

Of course you can do autofeed for laser BUT if you need autofeed for laser it means that you need ANOTHER equipment to do this work

Usually people use die-cut press for this purposes. Price of press is not big, but you must make die's for each design. So if you have small run - die could be extremely expensive.

[Flynt]

Does that mean if i wanted to stack say 5 sheets of a1 card to maximise my production time, I couldnt?

[Litografa]

Yes, you are right - you CAN NOT cut 5 sheets stack.

[Flynt]

Is anyone else got any suggestions regarding laser cutters??

[zax15uk]

Flynt,

Litografa has a lot of experience and is correct that cutting multiple sheets would be more difficult.

It is possible, but the edge quality will be inferior and holding down the material will be more difficult too.

I would suggest using a larger machine with fast cutting speed as Lito suggested, although I would go with an 80W with inert gas assist for optimum quality.

Zax.

[Litografa]

Flynt, if your budget for this project smaller, you can look on Chinese lasers with glass tube. Their prices are from $900 in China and slightly higher from UK suppliers (I and many other peoples can reccomend you HPC Lasers).
Difference between equipment, tubes and etc you can find here ( CNCforum). But please be ready for some problems with quality of cut (overburning). Or be ready for some additional pounds for gas assist

[Flynt]

Again, thank you so much for your help. Ive been looking at the Spirit GX which seems to have the right working area and features. Do you know how much one of these would cost? And would it work with Adobe Illustrator or would I use Corel Draw?

[Litografa]

Check PM.
Together with equipment you have everything to work with CorelDraw for free
BUT
If you want work with Mac - you need to buy LaserPro DirectPrint MAC AI Plug-In available for use with MAC OS which is priced around 300 Euro

[Flynt]

Litografe, thank you for everything. I think that is slightly out of our budget. But I found laser scipt machines which are UK stocked for a lol less. Does anyone know much about them, in particular the LS3060 plus?

[Litografa]

LS is equipment with GLASS LASER TUBE WITH WATER COOLING, GCC lasers use SYNRAD aluminium tube. You can spend few hours here and will understood difference between this lasers/tubes.