50W Laser Cleaning Equipment Rust Cleaner Laser Coating Remover
Handheld Portable
Principles and Fundamentals of Fiber Laser Cleaning
Cleaning with lasers is an important process for many industries
around the world, and while it has similarities to other laser
processes, it has some unique attributes which set it apart. We
have covered these below.
The basics
Before examining the specifics in more detail, these are the basic
principles and fundamentals of fiber laser cleaning:
· It is a process completed using a fiber laser, as opposed to a
crystal or gas laser
· It is a newer cleaning process, replacing more traditional
methods such as media blasting, dry-ice blasting or cleaning using
chemical solvents
· It is a non-contact, non-abrasive process
· It is an efficient, safe, environmentally-friendly and
cost-effective process
· It allows users a great deal of control over power output,
wavelength and ablation depth
Parameters
Item | L/N | Characteristics | Test Conditions | Min. | Typical | Max. | Unit |
Electrical Characteristics | 1 | Power Voltage | 220 | 210 | 220 | 230 | AC |
2 | Maximum current loss | Pout=Pnom | 4 | 5 | 6 | A |
3 | Total Power | 600 | 590 | 600 | 610 | W |
4 | Fiber Cable | 5 | 5 | 5 | 10 | M |
General Characteristics | 1 | Working temperature range | 0 | / | 60 | ℃ |
2 | Storage temperature | -10 | / | 60 | ℃ |
3 | Laser power | 100 | W |
4 | Peak power | >10KW | KW |
5 | Cooling method | Air Cooling | |
6 | Laser level | 4 Class | |
7 | Pulse energy | 1.5mJ | mJ |
8 | Laser wavelength | 1064 | nm |
9 | Preheat time | Reach to start operation | 0 | s |
Achieve complete stability | 10 |
10 | Humidity | 10 | / | 95 | % |
11 | Laser machine size | L647*W440*H859 | mm |
12 | Weight | 70 | kg |
How does fiber laser cleaning work?
There are two elements to examine with fiber laser cleaning; how
laser cleaning works, and how a fiber laser itself works.
Laser cleaning operates by using a laser beam to pulse the surface
layer of a material, ablating and vapourising it to the desired
depth to leave a clean, pure surface beneath. The important
fundamentals to note here are that this is a non-contact process,
so the laser beam won’t have any adverse abrasive side effects on
the material like more traditional laser processes that have come
before.
A fiber laser uses an optical fiber as its laser medium for
completion. Generally, you will find that this medium is a normal
optical fiber, manufactured from silica glass, which has been
dipped in the rare-earth element of Erbium. This is because Erbium
has good energy levels while being a cost-effective solution. It
is, therefore, a cheap, yet high quality, method.
Also found in this type of laser will be Bragg Gratings, which are
reflective sections of glass. Think of it as a type of mirror
system, these are used in order to make a laser cavity. You’ll also
find a pump source which helps to excite the electrons, needed in
order to create the laser beam. This laser beam will then, in turn,
be used for the laser cleaning process.
The laser cleaning process helps to leave a high-quality finish
Applications:
- Precise de coating of small areas |
- Natural stone cleaning |
- Rust/oxide removal |
- Oil & grease removal/Cleaning oil deposits |
- Paint & plating removal |
- Pre-treatment to enhance adhesive bonding |
- In-line baking plate cleaning |
- Print rollers cleaning |
- Weld seam pre-treatment/Removal preparation welding layers |
- Industrial, military & shipyard - production intensive de-coating |
- Nuclear de-contamination |
Why is the laser cleaning process better than more traditional
methods?
A key question that we are frequently asked is “How does laser
cleaning work differently to the other more traditional methods?”.
There are some key problems that lasers have helped to address and
solve.
Firstly, other methods were contact processes, meaning they were
abrasive and damaging to the materials that they were working with.
Take media blasting, for example, which essentially acts as a
pressure washer, but with pressurized air, to blast a material
until it is clean. It gets the job done, but it often affects the
material that you don’t want to damage below!
Laser cleaning, on the other hand, is non-contact and non-abrasive,
and so will only irradiate the material that you want to get rid
of.
You also have a great deal of control over the beam, meaning you
can achieve the desired depth that you want to. Further to this,
you can irradiate the whole surface layer of a material, or a much
thinner layer, say the topcoat of paint, but not the primer below.
Or, should you wish, you can just clean a very small section. If
using another process which simply blasts the material, it is hard
to enjoy such a high level of control.
One of the key benefits in the way that laser cleaning works is
that not much waste is left over due to the irradiation process;
the substrate is simply vaporized rather than left as waste. The
majority of the waste that is leftover comes as dust particles and
can be easily collected and removed by the user.
Previous processes left a great deal of waste that had to be
removed. Not only is this costly in terms of time efficiency, but
much of this waste was hazardous as well, and users were often
required to wear protective gear. This danger to worker safety has
been removed by the laser.
So, the key characteristics of how the laser cleaning process
works, which differentiates it from more traditional methods, are
that:
• It is a much safer process
• It is more efficient
• It offers the user a higher level of accuracy and control and
• There is a greater focus on a higher quality end result
