What is TroGlass Mirror?
TroGlass Mirror is extruded acrylic glass that has a reflective surface. TroGlass Mirror is the perfect alternative for glass because it has many advantages over glass mirrors. Mirror acrylic sheets have a higher resistance to breakage than glass and are lighter, with the advantage that this material has a lower risk of falling and breaking when mounted on a wall. The material base consists of extruded acrylic glass with a very small thickness tolerance.
Since TroGlass Mirror is acrylic-based, the cutting parameters for TroGlass can be used as starting values to determine the optimal parameters.
TroGlass Mirror is very easy to process with the fiber laser source. Use a Flexx lens to cut out the material with the CO2 source after the engraving process.
The grayscale matrix can be used to determine the engraving parameters. This material can be engraved on the front and back. The mirror material is very easy to remove from the back. Depending on the lens and details of the graphics, a Z offset of + 3 mm is used.
We recommend a resolution of 500 dpi. You can do the engraving on the back or front side, whichever you prefer. When engraving on the back, make sure that the graphics are mirrored. If you do the engraving on the front side of the material, we recommend that you do not use a Z offset. Since an engraving in the focus results in the greatest contrast, you can turn on the Air Assist to achieve a rich contrast.
An advantage of engraving on the back is that the protective foil of the TroGlass Mirror material remains on the material until the end of processing, so it is protected against damage.
Rapid cooling makes the material appear more matt and whiter.
Engraving with a fiber laser source leads to very detailed and intense engraving results. Use a frequency between 20,000 Hz and 30,000 Hz. Insert the material into the laser with the back side up. A Z offset of 1 to 2 mm is recommended when working with TroGlass Mirror.
We recommend a cutting frequency between 5,000 and 20,000 Hz. An optimally designed exhaust system is also very important for this material. Because the better the fresh residue is extracted, the higher the quality of the cut, and the effort required for cleaning is much lower.
For optimum cutting results insert two cutting lines: One, that is specified at low power and approx. + 2 mm Z offset. With this cut line, at first only the mirror layer will be removed. Draw the second cutting line next to it (e.g. by using the Contour Tool in CorelDraw) that cuts through the material.
Like this, you avoid overheating the mirror layer on the back when cutting, which would damage the coating.