LASER CUTTING 🔪💥

Before the start of this laser cutting practical, my group came up with a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) following the steps shown/given on blackboard. 

During the practical itself, there was a competency test and I had to follow the SOP that me and my group members came up with. 

During the test, I realized that there were many mistakes in our developed SOP and I had to make changes to improve on them. 

Previously:

- Both Epilog Fusion Pro and Epilog Fusion M2 were in a separated SOP

- Wrong words were used

- Order of the procedure was wrong

- did not include where to find some information (eg. material library)

Thus, in the improved SOP, I will firstly combine both Epilog Fusion Pro & M2 SOP together.

Followed by correcting the words that were wrongly used, example step 1 of the operating procedure, changing the word upload to import. I have also rearranged the steps in order of what I have done during the competency test. In steps where finding of tools are needed will also be added into the SOP.

Improved SOP: 

In my improved SOP, I changed a few words to be clearer, combined both M2 and Pro SOP into 1, and rearranged some steps in the procedure.

To add on, after the laser cutter finish cutting, shift the wood to see if the shape has been cut out, as sometimes laser might not be able to cut through the wood fully and there will be a need to go through the cutting process again.

Image below is for steps 9 and 10 of the improved SOP:

The laser cutting will then start to cut:

This below attached is the laser cutting process:

Competency assessment product:

Pieces from the parametric construction kit:

Reflection:

During the practical, we started off with the competency test and for me I was placed in the second slot on the epilog fusion pro machine. For the test, I was panicking on what to do and where to start. Although I had the SOP my group and I developed, it was still nerve-wrecking to do the competency test without the guidance of the lecturer and only using our developed SOP which was not guaranteed correct. The only instructions given was "Cut the sides and score the words". 

This competency test was important because is it to ensure that all students are competent to use the  laser cutter smoothly. It made me realize why are Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) important, and that SOPs should be as clear as possible to eliminate any confusions during operation.

I used to think that SOP is just a brief procedure given to help with the operation. Now I think that SOP plays an important part in operation for beginners, so next when I come across any other projects that requires SOP, I will do my best to stand in a beginner's shoes and go through the process if I would be able to understand and follow the steps if I have never done it before.