What materials can you laser cut?

There are a great many materials which can be successfully laser engraved, or cut with a laser cutter, and there are a few which can’t (mainly PVC based materials, some rubbers and polycarbonate).

If in doubt, contact us and we’ll be happy to go through the options – sometimes we can substitute special “laser friendly” materials such as laser rubber, which is much less smelly than normal rubber. Although it does still smell quite bad!  It works just the same, in fact it works great.

Polycarbonate can be engraved lightly, leaving a clear mark, but trying to cut it more deeply is problematic, leading to hard to remove brown deposits on the material.

You aren’t limited to what we keep in stock. If there’s something you want laser cutting which we don’t have then we can usually get it quickly, or you’re welcome to send us your materials or items to be worked on. You can have them drop shipped from your supplier direct to us so you don’t need to pay two sets of postage.

We may have to reject any materials which we’re unsure about, as there are a small number of materials which will damage the machine, basically anything with PVC in it. It shows up in flame retardant materials mainly.

The table shows a list of some materials which it’s possible to laser cut and laser engrave cleanly: