Laser Cutting for Technical Parts: Discover our POM Material

Posted By Eole Recrosio on Nov 30, 2016 | 0 comments

A new material has arrived in our catalogue for your laser cutting project! POM, also known as acetal or polyacetal, is a technical material used in the automotive and consumer electronics industry. It fits perfectly for objects like eyeglass frames, small gear wheels or for some types of handles. Discover what you can do with our new POM material!

Composition and Properties

POM is the acronym for Polyoxymethylene but is often known as acetal, polyacetal and polyformaldehyde. It is a technical and engineering thermoplastic used for precision parts that require high stiffness, low friction, and an excellent dimensional stability.

It has a great resistance to traction and impact, and an excellent dimensional stability (ability to keep its original dimensions under heat or any external source of modification).

POM is not affected by water, salt water or any usual solvent. In fact, it is really hard to dissolve this material at high temperatures. POM can be affected by sun UVs under long exposure, but it is possible to apply anti-UV stabilizers to double its lifetime.

POM is ideal at a large scale of temperature and for technical use. However, it is not recommended for engraving. For this kind of work, you should better use an acrylic material. To learn more, visit the POM material page.

What can you do with our new POM material

As we previously said, POM is a technical thermoplastic with great engineering capacities, so you can use it for many technical parts such as gears, hinges, handles or locks.

It is great for technical parts that need to move, turn or slide inside a mechanism over long periods. With its great resistance, POM is generally used for mechanical arms that need strength and flexibility under work.

POM is not a material designed for aesthetic use as parts are easily scratchable and as a result of the high temperature cutting by the laser, parts can be lightly burnt on edges but don’t worry, it is easily removable with acetone. To learn more about the POM uses and maintenance.

How to choose between Acrylic and our new POM material

Acrylic and POM are very different both in aspect and properties. As one is a technical engineering thermoplastic, the differences are mainly located in the use you can make of the product.

We made a table to show you precisely how and when to use POM rather than Acrylic:

	POM	Acrylic
Parts that need to move (gear, zip, slide)	✔	✘
Pieces subject to traction (piston, arm)	✔	✘
Pieces subject to impacts (case, casing, slapper)	✔	✘
Parts subject to temperature changes	✔	✘
Aesthetic ornaments	✘	✔
Engraving	✘	✔
Colored parts	✘	✔
Transparent parts	✘	✔

To discover more information about the POM material, visit our Laser Cutting Learning Center.

As you can see on the picture below, the engraved “S” is barely visible on the POM material whereas on the acrylic, we can clearly see it.

Montage differences Acrylic pom Sculpteo

How to choose the POM material on Sculpteo’s laser cutting platform

Once you’ve uploaded a file in one of the many file formats we accept for laser cutting, POM is available in the Material tab in the list of materials. POM comes in two different sizes to match your project requirements: 2 mm & 3 mm.