Laser cutting material guide
Every setting that lives on a Laser cutting material, and where each number comes from - usually a supplier's data sheet or an invoice.
A material is something you buy, so most of these numbers are on an invoice or a data sheet rather than in your head. Price and density are the two that matter most; get those right and everything else is a refinement.
Materials live in the Library too, so a price change is one edit even if five configurations use it.
Every setting on this page
These are in the same order as the editor, with the same help text. Each one has an anchor, and the ? beside a field in your console links straight to it - so if you are reading this because you clicked one, the setting you were looking at is highlighted.
Material: thickness table
Material classclassbasic
Metal or not; machines say which they cut.
Price: No direct price effect: it decides which machines take the material.
Typical: metal for steel, stainless, aluminium.
Can be engravedengravable
Whether engrave layers are engraved on this material where the machine can.
Price: Off: engrave layers are reported and left out, so they cost nothing.
Typical: on.
Thicknessesthicknessesbasic
Every thickness you offer in this material, with how fast it cuts and pierces and its limits. The first offered row is the default the buyer sees.
Price: Cut time is length divided by cut speed, plus a pierce per contour; assist gas is litres per minute of cutting, reported as `laser_cut.assist_gas`. Sheet mass is area times thickness.
Typical: mild steel 3 mm: 4 000-9 000 mm/min, 0.5 s pierce, 0.2 mm kerf; acrylic 3 mm on CO2: 1 200 mm/min.