Don’t compromise on your design. A-Laser has the laser cutting materials you need to make your project come to life.
Most Common Materials We Use for Laser Cutting
Below is the list of the most common laser cutting materials. If there’s a material you’d like us to cut, please contact us and we’ll be happy to accommodate.
Materials
BergQuist™ Thermal Materials
- Difficulty: Easy
- Notes: One of the laser cutting materials commonly used on heat sinks, the thermal conductivity of these materials coupled with their electrical insulative properties is a match made in heaven for keeping electronic components and solid-state switches passively cool without compromising on safety from electrical short circuits. BERGQUIST is one of the best materials for laser cutting that can be very good for the semiconductor industry.
Kapton
- Difficulty: Easy
-
Notes: Commonly used for making flex circuits and insulation of electronic devices, this material is very thermally stable. It cuts very cleanly on UV lasers. Since there is no known melting point for Kapton, this makes it an ideal candidate for laser ablation and one of the best materials for laser cutting. Geometries cut out of Kapton will not have any deviations caused by heat deformation. Its lightweight and thermal stability make it a great candidate for use on thermal insulation applications where lightweight is a requirement, specifically aircraft and spacecraft.
Learn more about Kapton.
Pyralux
- Difficulty: Easy
- Notes: What’s better than regular PCBs you ask? Flex Circuits! Why settle for rigid board designs that confine you to solid-state solutions when you can get the same functionality from the lighter, cheaper Pyralux circuit boards that will work just as well without the design confinement. When you think about wearable technology or any design that includes electronic circuit boards with freedom of motion or bendability requirement, look no further, Pyralux is the material for you. Our UV lasers are an excellent choice for structuring and de-paneling any circuit board design on this amazing Polyimide/Copper combo material. Pick the thickness that suits your design and we’ll make it happen for you.
Cirlex
- Difficulty: Easy
- Notes: Cirlex is basically laminated Kapton sheets, offering the same remarkable features of Kapton at a greater thickness. Most notably used as stiffener material for flex circuits and solder pad stencils which makes it worth to be included in the laser cutting material list and considered to be one of the best materials for laser cutting
Soma Black™
- Difficulty: Easy
- Notes: This material from Somar Corp is perfect for use in optical equipment. The material is virtually impenetrable by light and using it as a liner would prevent any light reflections within an enclosure. Using UV lasers for this material will get the best results for shadow masks which require small aperture cut-outs, which makes this materials one of the top laser cutting materials.
Learn more about Soma Black.
Delrin™
- Difficulty: Easy
- Notes: This thermoplastic material is very widely used for all sorts of applications ranging from home appliances to high-grade industrial applications. The high stiffness, low friction modulus, high thermal stability, and low price make it a very good candidate for precision parts on a budget and that makes it a good candidate in the laser cutting material list.
Silicone Rubber
- Difficulty: Medium
- Notes: This non-flammable polymer has a whole host of applications ranging from everyday products you use in your kitchen to medical equipment and even electrical splicing and insulation. This versatile material is not easy to process because of its self-healing properties but with the right tool design, your imagination is the limit.
Buna-N Rubber
- Difficulty: Medium
- Notes: Resistance to oils, fuels, and most chemicals make this material a really good option for making shims, O-rings, and all sorts of fittings for the automobile and aerospace industries. Very soft and cushiony, yet very resilient and rugged; that’s a great recipe for reliability and safety.
Polyimide Films
- Difficulty: Easy
- Notes: This generic form of Kapton tape retains most of the good properties of Kapton without breaking the bank. Ideal for use on large production runs.
Ultem™
- Difficulty: Easy
- Notes: This flame-resistant resin is great for medical applications. With extremely low smoke generation and good heat and solvent resistance, you can rely on Ultem to produce untampered results for your experiments and provides a sterile environment to mix and deliver your medications.
PEEK™
- Difficulty: Easy
- Notes: This shape-memory polymer with its ultra-high vacuum compatibility and robustness is perfect for all physically demanding applications. Add thermal degradation resistance and environmental resistance to aqueous and organic conditions to the mix and you end up with PEEK, a material that can be used anywhere from aerospace industries to biomedical industries. That’s why we consider this material one of the top laser cutting materials.
Learn more about PEEK.
3M™ Adhesive Tapes
- Difficulty: Medium
- Notes: Need to add adhesive backing to your designs? We can add and process a wide assortment of adhesive tapes and material combinations. Whether you need Acrylic or Silicone adhesive for your project, we will apply it to your material choice and fabricate your desired designs for you. Usually, the adhesive tapes are laminated to materials like Kapton. 3M is a good choice to choose from the laser cutting materials.
FR4
- Difficulty: Easy
- Notes: This material is included in the laser cutting material list because whether you want depaneling or cingulate printed circuit boards or cut out your own designs it is for you, we understand the versatility of FR4 and your need for a robust, lightweight, flame retardant material. That’s why we excel in processing and producing clean, precise cuts for your projects using FR4 that offer many more benefits than any other technology. This glass reinforced resin is the industry standard for printed circuit board manufacturing, and we are prepared to help you with clean, precise, and vibration-free depaneling for your sensitive electronic boards. Whether they are loaded with components or unpopulated, rest assured that they will be in capable hands in an ESD safe environment.
Stainless Steel
- Difficulty: Easy
- Notes: One of the most versatile and widely used materials that can be used in the medical, aerospace, and electronics industries. We’re prepared to process stainless steel with a wide variety of tempers, hardnesses, and grain structures to satisfy all your needs of shadow masks, stencils, shims, brackets, and stiffeners. We can add pre and post-processing services to your designs ranging from heat treating, hardening/ annealing, electro-plating, or zinc powdering and coating. This material is considered one of the best materials for laser cutting.
Solar Cells
- Difficulty: Medium
- Notes: The future of clean energy generation will rely heavily on the most abundant resource, the sun. At A-Laser we understand the need to process and cut solar cells into sizes that fit all needs. Whether your application requires scoring or high precision cutting, we have you covered.
Titanium
- Difficulty: Medium
- Notes: Titanium is a good choice to be included in the laser cutting material list because of the thermal conductivity and reaction to oxygen. Laser cutting services such as ours work with this material in thin foil form and need to be well versed in material handling just as much as cutting. There are many benefits to laser cutting these materials such as limiting material distortion, designing intricate patterns, and achieving tighter tolerances than other cutting technologies. We use pulsed lasers to decrease the heat-affected zone to the smallest possible amount. The UV laser technicians have designed tools specific to each metal type and thickness to give us the highest quality and longest-lasting parts because we understand the conditions these precision parts are used in.
BOROSILICATE GLASS
- Notes: We have successfully developed parameters for processing borosilicate glass. We’ve found that our ability to handle fragile materials complemented by the non-contact ablation and highly accurate design conformance makes us well suited to manufacture for many industries with this material. Whether you are prototyping a variety of designs or moving to production levels, cutting borosilicate glass through our process is ideal. We provide quick turns while maintaining the highest possible quality.
PolyCarbonate
- Difficulty: Easy
- Notes: A group of Thermoplastics that is tough, optically transparent and easily Sputter deposited if need be. With applications ranging from electronics, medical, food, and automotive to projectile resistant eyewear, you can be sure that if you look around you right now, you will find Polycarbonate in your immediate vicinity. Because polycarbonate is one of our laser cutting materials, whatever you choose to use it for, we can cut it for you cleanly and accurately to suit your needs.
Polyester
- Difficulty: Easy
- Notes: Notes: This Semi-Crystalline resin is one of the laser cutting materials because it is very lightweight, impact-resistant, and impermeable to Oxygen and moisture. with tempers that range from semi-rigid to rigid and a wide range of Intrinsic Viscosity options, this makes Polyester (PET) a really good candidate for any application relating to liquid and fluid preservation and separation. PET filled with glass particles can even be used as a substrate for Solar cells. Laser processing of this material will get you the cleanest crispest edge quality for all your projects.
Mylar
- Difficulty: Easy
- Notes: Whether you’re looking for metalized or non-metalized Mylar for your project, we can help you with clean accurate cuts of this great electrical and thermal insulator. A material strong enough, yet light enough to be used in space as solar sails or solar curtains. You can even use it to make your own solar eclipse viewer, or as a sandwich barrier between sticky resin materials, we won’t judge you!
Vinyl
- Difficulty: Medium
- Notes: Not to be confused with your music records, this is one of our laser cutting materials. This material has many other uses. Strong enough to endure high pressure with varying temperatures without deforming or giving up on you, you can count on Vinyl for a whole host of healthcare and engineering applications. Laser processing is your ideal solution for making precision shims and O-rings out of this wonderful material, whether you’re looking to cut the soft Vinyl material or the rigid PVC variant, we got you covered.
Henkel Epoxy Films
- Difficulty: Hard
- Notes: Those silver epoxy films are a true modern marvel, how often can you find Adhesive resins that are also electrically conductive? The answer is more often than you know! If you’ve ever been on a plane then these films are the reason you had WiFi. A-Laser is the ONLY laser cutting service capable of handling these delicate films, a process that involves a lot of engineering and handling skills in addition to having superior UV lasers.
Prepreg
- Difficulty: Medium
- Notes: So you’d like to manufacture PCBs but you’re on a budget? We will help you de-panel, route out and ablate any board material, it doesn’t have to FR4 or Rogers UV lasers cut all FiberGlass Resins equally!
Rogers
- Difficulty: Easy
- Notes: Similar to FR4, this fiberglass reinforced resin boasts better properties for high-frequency communication boards than FR4 has to offer. We are well versed and capable of laser processing this material just as proficiently as we can for FR4.
Carbon Fiber
- Difficulty: Medium
- Notes: Unusual applications require unusual materials. A material that is tougher than steel yet lighter than aluminum and is not even metal. If you’re looking for tough yet nimble, then Carbon fiber may be the material for you. Our lasers can ablate any design you can think of out of thin Carbon Fiber sheets with remarkable accuracy to make it as easy as possible for you to incorporate it into your designs.
Alumina Ceramic
- Difficulty: Medium
- Notes: A highly dense material that exhibits exceptional strength, resistant to both high temperature and corrosion. Alumina is usually the go-to option whenever you want to design robust high-frequency electronic devices this Aluminum Oxide will not let you down. If your designs require high precision clean fabrication then we have the equipment to help you, Unlike mechanical CNC machines, UV Lasers have no vibration or intrusive force that would break ceramics or create any microfractures.
Datum Alloy
- Difficulty: Easy
- Notes: This Stainless Steel alloy is specifically engineered to guarantee the best results for laser cut microholes and small aperture openings for stencils. The small grain size assures minimal burrs or slag while maintaining the great qualities and durability of Stainless Steel. Our IR lasers with the help of our process love this material and if you’re looking for the cleanest thin metal cuts, so should you!
Grafoil
- Difficulty: Medium
- Notes: If we are writing about laser cutting material list, Grafoil should be included. Graphite’s thermal stability, conductivity, lubricious nature, and chemical resistance are the things you are looking for then Grafoil® is what you want. This remarkable Carbon polymer shares the best properties of Graphite and then some. Perfect for Gaskets that perform flawlessly in conditions where other gasketing materials dare not venture.
Learn more about Grafoil.
Additional Materials:
Notes: Does your project require ablation of thin metals? We have what you need! With the ability to process frequently used metals and alloys to even the exotic and precious metals, we can help you with most metals including but not limited to the materials listed below. This wide assortment of metals gives you many options for your projects – whether you need contact pins, shims, stiffeners, or shadow masks. We have the best expertise and equipment to deliver the cleanest, lowest burr cuts to you.
Invar, Kovar
- Difficulty: Easy
Tungsten, Tin
- Difficulty: Medium
Copper, Beryllium Copper, Beryllium Nickel, Nickel, Aluminum, Molybdenum, Gold, Silver, Platinum, Brass
- Difficulty: Hard
Reach out to us today to discuss the best materials for laser cutting your project. Our team works closely with you, providing unmatched customer service and technical support.