laser cured powder coat on acrylic

Lionel Rocheleau is one of my lab technicians in the DCRL. This semester he was interested in doing some laser cutter investigations during his laser technician "down time". We discussed the use of powder coat with laser engraving on acrylic and he made the above samples. The piece of acrylic is first engraved with a raster pattern at standard speed/power and then powder coat power is placed on the piece and the operation is re-run but at a higher speed and lighter power. The result is a cured/fused powder on top of the acrylic. The results are really quite nice and it appears to look like colored acrylics. He also experimented with layering the powder to see what effects he could achieve. The ability to precisely "color" ares on the acrylic is so great. Lionel is going to work toward his completion of a BA in Digital Fabrication and Design. He has just completed his Art and Design First Year course work so I look forward to seeing his progress in the DCRL.