What Is a Laser Cleaning Machine
In the world of industrial cleaning and surface preparation, laser cleaning machines have emerged as a revolutionary technology. These devices offer a non-abrasive, eco-friendly, and highly efficient method for removing contaminants, rust, paint, and other unwanted materials from surfaces.
What Is a Laser Cleaning Machine?
Laser cleaning machines mainly rely on the physical effects produced by the interaction between high-energy laser beams and the surface to be cleaned, such as thermal effects, photochemical effects, and shock wave effects, to quickly separate pollutants from the surface of the material, thereby achieving the purpose of cleaning.
Laser beam focusing: The laser cleaning machine focuses the laser beam onto the surface of the object through an optical system, forming a laser area with high energy density.
Thermal effect: The laser beam irradiates the surface of the object, causing the surface material to instantly heat to a high temperature, causing the material to melt, vaporize or evaporate.
Physical effect: During the laser cleaning process, the physical effects of the laser beam on the surface of the object include melting, vaporization, evaporation and peeling, which remove impurities such as dirt, oxides, and oil stains on the surface of the object.
Cooling effect: During the laser cleaning process, the water cooling system around the laser beam cools the surface of the object to prevent the heat generated during the cleaning process from damaging the object.
Factors affecting the quality of laser cleaning
Laser wavelength
When selecting a laser light source, we must first combine the light absorption characteristics of the workpiece to select a laser with a suitable wavelength as the laser light source. In addition, experimental studies by foreign scientists have shown that when cleaning pollutant particles with the same characteristics, the shorter the wavelength, the stronger the laser cleaning ability and the lower the cleaning threshold. It can be seen that on the premise of meeting the light absorption characteristics of the material, in order to improve the cleaning effect and efficiency, a laser with a shorter wavelength should be selected as the cleaning light source.
Power density
When performing laser cleaning, the laser power density has an upper limit damage threshold and a lower limit cleaning threshold. Within this range, the greater the laser power density of laser cleaning, the greater the cleaning ability and the more obvious the cleaning effect. Therefore, the laser power density should be increased as much as possible without damaging the substrate material.
Pulse width
The light source for laser cleaning can be either continuous light or pulsed light. Pulsed lasers can provide very high peak power, so they can easily meet the threshold requirements. Moreover, studies have found that in terms of the thermal effect on the substrate during the cleaning process, the pulsed laser has a smaller impact, and the continuous laser has a larger heat-affected area.
Scanning speed and number of times
Obviously, in the process of laser cleaning, the faster the laser scanning speed and the fewer the times, the higher the cleaning efficiency, but this may cause a decrease in the cleaning effect. Therefore, in the actual cleaning application process, the appropriate scanning speed and number of scans should be selected according to the material characteristics and contamination of the workpiece to be cleaned. The overlap rate during scanning will also affect the cleaning effect.
Defocus
Before laser cleaning, most lasers are converged through a certain combination of focusing lenses, and in the actual laser cleaning process, they are generally carried out under defocus. The greater the defocus, the larger the spot on the material, the larger the scanning area, and the higher the efficiency. When the total power is constant, the smaller the defocus, the greater the power density of the laser, and the stronger the cleaning ability.
Laser Rust Cleaning Machine Application Areas:
Aerospace: Used to clean the grease, rust and coating on the surface of aircraft engine blades and fuselage to ensure flight safety.
Automobile manufacturing: Remove welding slag and oil stains from the welding parts of the car body, and clean engine parts to improve product quality and production efficiency.
Cultural relics protection: Accurately remove stains, rust and old coatings on the surface of cultural relics, while protecting the cultural relics from damage.
Electronic appliances: Used to remove dust, oil stains and oxides on the surface of circuit boards, connectors, sensors and other components to improve product reliability.
Conclusion
Laser cleaning machines represent a significant advancement in surface cleaning technology. Their ability to provide precise, efficient, and eco-friendly cleaning makes them an invaluable tool in various industries. Whether you’re in manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, or cultural heritage preservation, a laser cleaning machine can help you achieve superior cleaning results while reducing environmental impact and operational costs.