Students from HAMK are getting the chance to understand the working possibilities while using a laser cutter for their project ideas. Right below you can read more about experiences of using laser corner!
During all the hectic meetings, facility – and equipment maintenance, information – and material gathering. It feels great to stop now and then, to get the chance to guide students from different backgrounds. For example, how to use and understand the possibilities of the laser equipment, which students can work with inside HAMK Design Factory (HDF). On November 7th and 8th, I had this opportunity with a couple of students, who have different backgrounds and production needs. One student was a first-year student from the Design department and the other was from the HDF Rapid Development Project (RPD). Both students had a need to use the laser corner equipment.
Laser cutting design piece
One of the students from the Design department had to design and create a few of her own prototypes, with the laser cutter for a design course on the Clothing design lab. The materials she used, were three different fabrics, which all had more or less different outcomes. The main objective of the prototyping was for her to get a better understanding of how the laser cutter works and especially, what are its possibilities. At first, we went through the basics of using the laser cutter and how its different power values would affect her materials. After this, we started the actual prototyping process of her designs, which required a bit more development to get a better outcome on the fabric. After a couple of hours staring at the moving laser, like a cat staring at a fly, we got the prototypes finished and Veera was happy with the results. This also sparked a bigger interest in using the laser as a possible tool on some other projects in the future.
Keychains for RPD
The other student from the RPD course wished to create few models with the laser cutter and print some pamphlets for his group’s presentation. He already had an understanding, of what the laser cutter is and what it could accomplish but he was new to the process of using it himself. He was very interested and motivated with the process and he got a better grasp of it, after using it himself. The models, which we were lasering were 30 keychains, which had their groups project quote and logo burned to the surface. Just like with design student, we first went through the basics and power values, to get the best results on our material. In this case, it was 4mm birch plywood. End result being, what we were looking for, a nice clean cut of keychain shape, with a quote and logo finish on the surface.
-Markku
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