What do you all think about lasering silicone rubber sheet of up to 2.5mm thickness at the space?
For a while I have been thinking about some designs that need a “less flexible” material in conjunction with fabric. I really like the properties of Hypalon / HANK but it requires tremendous ventilating and sequestration effort to laser cut, because of chlorine. Then while fiddling with a watchband I realized that silicone has many of the same nice features – water shedding, good body, flexibility with modest stretch.
What has the space’s experience with silicone laser cutting been? I am still nailing down a particular product and then I can get a specific MSDS.
I can’t speak for now, and it does of course depend on the end product and if they’ve added additives and what not, however, lasering silicone sheets is usually safe as long as typical ventilation and air pressure is correct and has been allowed on the lasers in most cases in the past.
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Byproduct of lasering most silicone type materials such as PDMS is silicon dioxide (silica). Its not good to breathe it in but the quantity generated is very small compared with something like cutting countertops with a saw for example. So generally safe given adequate ventilation.
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I cut a piece of low temperature (-100ºF to 400ºF) silicone, cut was good slight charring but cleaned up well. It did take multiple passes to cut through a 1.5mm sheet.
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