From testing for our customers: laser cleaning

10. 7. 2024

The use of lasers for material cleaning is one of the progressively developing topics, especially due to the high productivity and good process automation. The laser cleaning process is based on the different absorption of the layer to be removed and the underlying material. This makes it possible to remove paint, oxide layers or various coatings from the surface with minimal impact on the substrate material. When the process is repeated, a cleaned surface without residues is achieved.

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Our application laboratory has a wide range of pulsed laser sources suitable for laser cleaning with power from 50 to 300 W. With increasing power, the cleaning time increases in direct proportion to the layer thickness, which can range from units to tens of centimetres per second.

The video shows two laser cleaning processes using different laser powers depending on the material and the desired result.

In the first case, the paint is removed from steel parts using a 100 W laser source. This laser source is proving to be both very effective and cost-effective. In the second case, it was necessary to remove an oxide layer from the surface of the pipes. Here a 300 W laser source was used. The process uses a scanning head and a rotary axis which, each time after cleaning a segment within the depth of field, rotates to the next segment and repeats the process. Here the use of a 300 W laser appears to be optimal in terms of high surface productivity and quality of the cleaned surface. The laser cleaning process always includes a strong suction and the necessary safety enclosure on the delivery machine.