CUTTING IN METAL 101

7 RULES

– to insure you the best result when cutting in metal materials

We highly recommend you to read the text below thoroughly before ordering metal & steel cuttings.

The file formats are the same but this kind of laser cutting differs from cuttings ind other materials. You file has to be vector-based graphic and send as either PDF, ai, dxf or dwg. .

1. Parts & leftover material

We will dispose the leftover material from the cuttings. This means that you will only receive the parts and not the leftover material. In that way you will save money on shipping as the package will weigh simnifically less.

100% of the leftover materail will be reused.

2. Automatic attachment of small items

Due to the high oxygen pressure in the machine parts that are less than 80mm will automatically get attached to the material using micro joints.

Before the cutting starts the machine will carefully make small bridges/ welds that will keep the items in place during the cutting process.

When the cutting is finished the bridges are easy to break through and the items can be removed from the material sheet.

  • Small grates can appear in the small grates in the micro joints on the parts. These are easily removable by using a small file.
  • When cutting a lot of small items you will receive the leftover material as well.

3. Lead in

The process of metal cutting differs from cutting in for instance acrylic material and wood as metal doesn’t evaporate during the cutting proces. The metal melts. To insure the highest precision possible the laser starts to cut a couple of millimetres outside the cutting line.

Be aware that the machine see all inner parts of the design as leftover material. Therefor the laser will place the ‘lead in’ in all holes within your objects.

With fill colour you indicate which parts are the actual design and what is leftover material. You decide which colour but please avoid the colour white.

4. ONLY closed curves

When cutting metal it is very important that all vector lines and curves are closed as the machine doesn’t know where to place the lead in. If the lines aren’t closed we can’t guarantee that the lead in will be placed correctly.

5. Curves

When preparing your design for being cut in metal it’s important to only use smooth arches for making round edges/corners etc. It’s not optimal to create round edges/corners etc. by using a lot of short and straight lines as the rounding can appear uneven. Therefore you should try using as few point as possible.

6. Shared lines

It is not to your advantage to do shared lines in metal cuttings. The metal laser needs to be able to analyse every single part before it can start cutting. Therefore keep a min. 10mm distance between your objects.

7. Holes and thin parts

We highly recommend that the thinnest parts of your metal cuttings aren’t smaller than 10mm as the material in fastened with a high vacuum suction mechanism. Very small parts have the risk to be sucked into the vacuum and disappear. The distance between parts and holes in the metal sheet also needs be min. 10mm. Are you making at plate of holes make sure that there is a 10mm distance between the holes.

How small can my objects be ?
The smallest objects can be minimum 20x20mm.
The largest object we are able to cut can be maximum 3000x1500mm.

Remember to take the size of the material when you design and nest your files on the material sheets.

Yes, with cotter you can just order one object if needed. To cut your part we will find the smallest sheet possible to fit the size of your design.
Be aware that you will pay for the entire sheet of material. We can’t cut the same sheet of material twice and therefore all of the leftover material will be sent to be remelted.
Therefore make sure to use as much of the material as possible to avoid leftover material.
The laser takes the width of the cutting track into account when cutting. The laser cuts on the outside of the line in your file. In that way your design ends up being the exact size as the design in your file. This means that you dont have to take the size of the cutting track into account while drawing your design.
The metal sheets are quite heavy and will therefore often get scratches and wear tracks from being handled. This can either be from the suction disk, thumbprints from manuel handling or other forms of scratches on the surface. Some of the materials like: brass, stainless steel and copper comes with a protective film on one side, which is removable post cutting.
Unfortunately we can’t offer to cut in your own material. We use material from our own stock. In that way we can manage to work more efficiently.
All drawings need to be uploaded as vector files. Avoid curves build from line segments as it won’t give a nice result and it will be more expensive as the cutting proces will be longer.
Make sure to upload your files in scale 1:1. Please double check your files before ordering.
We cut the the usual formats: pdf, ai, dxf and dwg but please remember that all files must contain vector graphic.
Remember to remove all double lines in your design. It will give you the best and and cheapest result.
If you see lines that are not immediately visible in your file it is likely to be hidden lines or layers. Please remove hidden lines as they otherwise will be cut.
The laser cutting in metal can’t cut files with shared lines. Therefore make sure to place your objects with a min. distance of 10mm.
All objects need to be kept within a 10mm distance from the edge of the material.

Yes, as you pay for both cutting time + material. If you have a poor utilization of the material, this will be reflected in an increased unit price, therefore please ensure to utilise the material as much as possible to get the best unit price.
The production time for metal cuttings are a bit longer than regular cuttings. You need to calculate 7 work days after placing your order and received you order confirmation. Unfortunately it is not possible to order metal cuttings with express production.
Orders cut in metal and steel can’t unfortunately not be picked up. We will send the order with GLS.

Yes, no problem! Just be aware that the production time will be 7 work days for both orders. We will afterwards send the metal parts in one package and the other materials in another package. There may be different shipping times on the packages as they are shipped independently.

Calculate your price within seconds

It will only take a couple of seconds to upload your cutting file and see the prices for cutting it in copper, brass, aluminium, steel and stainless steel.

From ordering the process is only 7 work days.

Calculate now

Cutting in metal – F.A.Q