Laser Duo
A dual-source laser cutter
Premises
We dream in a future of freedom, where open source hardware and Fab Labs enable people to fully understand how to make things they need, and where decentralized local production is customized to impact the surrounding community. Believing that empowering the user with knowledge about how to make machines, LaserDuo wants to give to the world a powerful open source tool, to lasercut (almost) any material. And, together with BigFDM, this is one of the first steps in developing other machines sharing the same philosophy.
About Laser Duo
LaserDuo is an open source laser cutter having two different laser sources. Using a 130W CO2 and a 75W YAG lasers, LaserDuo can work with a wide range of materials such as wood and metals.
Taking advantage of what we have learned in Fab Academy, LaserDuo has been developed using standard Fab Lab equipment and techniques plus a membrane press machine to bend the aluminum parts. LaserDuo was developed at Fab Lab Kamp-Linfort by Daniele Ingrassia. Reversing the consumer process, where knowledge and building of machines stays inside a black box managed by companies, LaserDuo brings the advantages of an open source development:
Full awareness about how the machine works
Reproducible design
Possibility to customize the machine and/or to build new ones
Built as much as possible with local materials
Local self-fixing and self-production of the machine parts
Community can use and improve the design
Include and enable anyone in the process
Cheap alternative to large scale 3D printers
Use LaserDuo as tool to produce other open source machines
Developed and built in a Fab Lab as multipurpose machine, LaserDuo allows to access the laser cutting technology at lower price in comparison to similar machines available on the market. Especially considering the possibility to work with metals. The open source design allows the user to fix the machine by himself, and to be aware of the process in a way that he can use it to reproduce the machine or parts for it. Being a challenging project from several aspects, such as size of the working area, Z-axis, speed, resolution and the dual laser, it also offers additional features like an integrated PC to control the machine and launch jobs, air assist, solid aluminum bodywork.
Want to know more?
Check Laser Duo repository for specs and the full documentation.