Laser Cutting Kerf Compensation

What Kerf Is and Why It Matters

A laser cutter's beam has a physical width, typically a fraction of a millimeter, and vaporizes that much material along every cut line, meaning a design's paths don't translate into an identical final part size without adjustment — this discrepancy, called kerf, matters especially for interlocking or tightly-fitted parts.

• A laser beam has a physical width that vaporizes material along the cut line
• This vaporized width, called kerf, means paths don't map to an identical final size
• Matters especially for parts designed to interlock or fit together tightly

Adjusting SVG Paths to Compensate for Kerf

Compensating for kerf typically means offsetting a design's paths inward or outward by roughly half the kerf width, depending on whether a piece needs to be slightly larger or smaller than its nominal design dimension, a calculation many laser cutting software packages can apply automatically to an imported SVG.

• Compensation typically offsets paths inward or outward by about half the kerf width
• The offset direction depends on whether a piece needs to be larger or smaller
• Many laser cutting software packages apply this offset automatically to imported SVGs

Frequently Asked Questions

Related guides