Laser-cut screens: what the drawing has to know

A laser can cut almost any pattern into a sheet of metal. What it cannot do is make that sheet stand up, stay flat, or let the right amount of light through. Those are decided on the drawing, before the first sheet is cut, and once a sheet is cut it is a cut sheet.

Open area

How much of the screen is hole decides everything about how it feels. A screen that separates two dining areas should let light and glimpses through but not a clear view; one that hides a plant room should not. The pattern’s open area, its depth and how it is lit decide this, and the honest test is a full-size section of the real pattern, held where the screen will stand, looked at from where people will be.

Bridges

Every island in a pattern has to be connected to the rest of the sheet by something. The thin strips that do that — the bridges — are where a screen is weakest, and a pattern that looks delicate on paper often looks delicate because its bridges are too thin to survive handling, let alone a hotel corridor. The drawing settles the minimum bridge for the thickness, and the pattern is adjusted to it.

Thickness and panel size

A large screen in thin sheet will not stay flat; a small screen in thick plate is heavier than it needs to be and its fixings have to carry that. Panel size, thickness and frame are one decision. Where a screen is very tall, it is made in sections with joints designed to disappear rather than in one sheet that will bow.

Fixing

A screen stands, hangs, or is framed, and each changes what its edge has to be. Freestanding screens need a base with enough footprint to be stable. Hung screens need a top rail that carries the weight without showing. Framed screens need a frame that is part of the design, not an afterthought around it. Deciding this first avoids redrawing the pattern to suit it later.