Fiber Laser Cutting Design Guide

This guide covers every design rule and practical constraint you need to prepare your flat parts for our TRUMPF fiber laser systems. From minimum hole diameters to file format requirements, this is the single reference document for submitting files with zero back-and-forth.

If you follow the guidelines on this page, your parts will be quoted faster, cut cleaner, and arrive exactly as your CAD model specifies.

Accepted File Formats

We accept 2D vector geometry in industry-standard formats. The closer your file is to clean, production-ready geometry, the faster it moves through our system.

Accepted formats

• DXF required for flat 2D sheet metal profiles
• STEP / STP required for 3D models with bends or formed features

File preparation rules

• Single closed contour: Every cut profile must be a fully closed polyline or spline. Open endpoints produce invalid geometry.
• No duplicate lines: Stacked or overlapping geometry causes the laser to cut the same path twice, damaging the edge.
• No construction layers: Remove dimensions, notes, center marks, and hatching from the cut geometry layer.
• Units: Confirm your DXF is saved in inches or millimeters—not a unitless drawing.

Standard Tolerances

At Xeon NC, our standard tolerance capability covers most production scenarios without additional cost or special setup.

Minimum Feature Sizes

Laser cutting has physical limits governed by beam diameter, kerf width, and material thickness. Designing below these dimensional floors risks burning, poor edge quality, or physical inability to separate the feature from the sheet.

Minimum hole diameter

The minimum hole that can be cleanly cut is generally equal to the material thickness (1:1 ratio). Cutting a hole smaller than the sheet thickness causes the beam to dwell too long in a small area, resulting in thermal blowout and a rough slug.

Minimum slot width

Slot width rules mirror hole diameter constraints. As a general floor, slot width should never be less than material thickness. Narrower slots risk slag bridging and incomplete evacuation.

Minimum web / bridge width

The minimum solid material remaining between two adjacent cuts (the "web") should be at least equal to material thickness. Thinner webs warp, melt, or fall into the slat bed during processing.

Corners and Internal Radii

A laser beam has a physical diameter. This means that every internal corner will inherently carry a small radius—the beam simply cannot cut a mathematically perfect 90° interior angle.

Practical radius guidance

• Thin gauge internal corners will carry approximately a 0.010″ – 0.015″ natural radius
• Mid gauge internal corners will carry approximately a 0.015″ – 0.025″ natural radius
• Thick plate internal corners will carry approximately a 0.025″ – 0.040″ natural radius

If your design requires a genuinely sharp internal corner for mating or assembly, consider adding a small relief cut (sometimes called a "mouse ear" or "bone" relief) at the corner. This prevents stress concentration and gives the beam a defined termination point.

Tab-and-Slot Design

Tab-and-slot joints are one of the most popular self-fixturing strategies in laser-cut assemblies. They align parts for welding or fastening and dramatically reduce assembly time.

• Tab width: Minimum 2× material thickness. Narrower tabs deform during insertion.
• Slot clearance: Add 0.005″ – 0.010″ total clearance per side for a press-fit alignment, or 0.010″ – 0.020″ for easy-slide assembly.
• Tab length: Minimum 3× material thickness to provide adequate shear surface for welded joints.
• Corner relief: Add small radii or relief notches at the base of internal slot corners to avoid stress risers and match the natural beam radius.

For the worked numbers at your gauge — tab width, tab length, slot width and height, and the clearance for each fit, all drawn to scale — see the Slot & Tab Size Chart. Every clearance there is stated as total clearance between the tab and the slot wall.

Text and Engraving

Laser cutting can produce text, logos, and part markings directly on the sheet in two ways:

Through-cut text

Letters are fully cut through the sheet. This works well for signage and decorative panels, but small fonts and narrow strokes break apart. Minimum recommended font height for through-cut lettering is 0.250″ (6 mm) with a stroke width no less than material thickness.

Engraved / etched text

The laser marks the surface without cutting through. This is ideal for part numbers, revision markings, and serial identifiers. Engraved text can go significantly smaller—down to approximately 0.100″ (2.5 mm) font height.

Nesting and Gang-Sheet Strategies

After your geometry is validated, it is nested onto a standard sheet size. Nesting is the algorithmic process of arranging parts to maximize material utilization while maintaining cut quality and skeleton stability.

What we optimize for

• Material utilization: Higher nest efficiency means less waste and lower per-part cost.
• Cut sequence: The order in which parts are cut affects heat distribution and skeleton rigidity.
• Common-line cutting: Where appropriate, adjacent parts share a single cut line, eliminating redundant passes.
• Microtabs: Small retaining bridges can be added to prevent small parts from tipping into the slat bed during cutting.

Material Capabilities

Our fiber laser platform processes the following sheet metals with production-grade edge quality:

For alloys or thicknesses not listed above, contact our engineering team for a feasibility review.

Submission Checklist

Before uploading your files, verify the following: