There’s not a lot of information available on the Spark with it being so new. I thought I’d share my test run from this evening.
The denim I used is a medium weight cotton blend. For the thickness setting, I entered 0.04" (about 1 mm).
I chose a series of settings as indicated in the photo. Speed/power/passes. The lines per inch was 135. The graphic on the right was done using 200/2/2x and took about 30 minutes to complete.
The last test setting (100/5/1x) resulted in cutting completely thru the fabric in places. I would imagine it would have cut clean through the entire printing at a lower speed, higher power or a 2nd pass.
This is an awesome test, like @rappee25407 said thanks for posting!
Since the Aura and Spark have the same laser these settings should work just as well in the Aura I think.
A lot of times when you’re engraving on cotton-based materials the second question is how well does it stand up to being washed? Have you had a chance to test that yet? I am curious to know if the color stays the same after a washing.
Here are the back and front views after the swatch was washed. I like how the image turned out, however, I don’t think the 2nd pass was necessary considering the cut is a bit visible on the backside.
In case it helps anyone, the fabric is 56% cotton, 19% polyester, 14% lyocel, 10% rayon, 1% spandex.
If you can manage a bit of polyester blend instead of pure cotton, the same low power that still broke the cotton threads would just melt the polyester into the cotton and not weaken it so much.
Enough polyester will seal laser cut edges so I guess not in that case. If the burnt edges unravel and fall apart then it is not sealing the burnt places.
