Lycra and Lace

Lace cut-out design by Portmans. www.portmans.com.au

Last week I went to J- Block to have an induction so that I can use the lasercutter.  This cutter is primarily used by the artictect/industrial design students to build their models.

So far the laser cutter has been used to cut out leather and silk but has yet to be tested on Lyrca.

I am very interested in using the laser cutter to create lace like trimming on my swimsuit.
 (There were thoughts about using it on the whole swimsuit but I am concerned that the cut outs will weaken the fabric. Hence just using it as a trim/ decorative feature to start with.)

As I will be the first student to attempt this.  It may not work. It could possibly melt the fabric.
Below are some drawings of my example cut-outs.  I have purchased a pale pink lycra for the job.
As I wanted to see if the laser will leave any residue or burn markings on the fabric once cut out.

Template design for the laser cutter.

When I went into the laser cuttering room we had to tape the fabric down onto a piece of cardboard to make sure it didn't move around and start to curl up. As this was an experiment we had to adjust the settings to see how they worked then stop the machine and adjust it again to see the results. If the settings were to high it would burn through the fabric leaving a residue on the fabric if the settings wre to low it would not cut out the shapes.

The test was quite successful. In the picture above you can see where some of the cut outs have come away. The laser cut through the lycra but has some fibres still attach which are the cotton fibres. 

Here are the laser cutting settings.  (NOTE - all fabrics should be tested before working with settings on finally pieces).

2mm board
.5mm Fabric
Speed 20%
Cutter space 450 w x 300mm
Remove air jet and inser plug.
Power at 16%
Increase Pulse per inch to 600dpi density.

Extactor On! Check.  Let's get cutting.