Events

Laser Cutting Masterclass

Laser cutters are extremely useful pieces of equipment and we use the PROUD laser cutter at least a few times a week. There is a danger though that they are used in only a basic way just to cut things

We were lucky then to have the opportunity to host an exhibition from Material Sense on innovative laser cutting approaches. This exhibition was accompanied by a one-day masterclass to help us get the most out of our machine.

The masterclass was led by Material Sense and some talented designers and engineers running a laser cutting lab in Rotterdam called snijlab. https://www.snijlab.nl/

In addition to bringing some exciting new materials for us to play with, they set up a brilliant workshop that examined the three fundamental components of laser cutting:

·      Compliance (flexibility)

·      The structure (surface etching)

·      Jointing (connecting things)

A groups of 20 people spent the day on this, some doing their own thing, others taking the opportunity to design lamps, you will see from the pictures here that the outcomes are very interesting, including a translucent space invader lamp to one that uses the properties of laser cut felt to hold it together.

The best of these outcomes are the prototypes that led up to these and are now included in the travelling Material Sense exhibition that travels next to Kotrijk in Belgium as part of the important and innovative knowledge exchange at the heart of the PROUD project.