Laser cleaning: Light up the green road of industrial cleaning

In the busy industrial workshop, Li Gong is facing a thorny problem. The surface of a precision mechanical component is coated with oil that is difficult to remove. These pollutants not only affect the performance of the equipment, but also may pose a risk to the subsequent production process. Traditional cleaning methods, such as chemical solvent soaking, mechanical scrubbing, etc., are either inefficient or may damage the surface of the parts, making Li Gong feel helpless.

By chance, he learned about an innovative technology - laser cleaning - and decided to try it out. I saw a small beam of laser on the surface of the parts gently swept, a few seconds later, those stubborn stains magically disappeared, the surface of the parts to restore the original smooth. This scene made Li Gong amazed, but also let him deeply appreciate the charm of laser cleaning technology.

What is Laser cleaning?

Laser cleaning is an advanced cleaning technology that uses a high energy laser beam to irradiate the surface of an object and rapidly evaporate or peel off impurities, pollutants or coatings through optical and thermal effects.

The core component of laser cleaning technology is a laser with large pulse energy, high average power and peak power. As we all know, laser is a light source with high brightness, high consistency and high orientation, and pulsed laser can release high energy laser beam in a very short time, with high peak power and energy density.

Compared with continuous laser, pulsed laser can generate high temperature in an instant, but due to the very short time, the heat is too late to conduct to the surrounding material, which greatly reduces the thermal impact of laser on the substrate material. When the laser beam shines on the surface being cleaned, the laser energy is absorbed and has a strong thermal effect on the pollutant in a very short period of time. This thermal effect causes the surface temperature of the contaminant or coating to rise, causing it to evaporate, decompose, or peel off. At the same time, the high energy density of the pulsed laser makes it possible to directly penetrate certain materials without damaging the substrate surface, and the cleaning process is more efficient.

Why is laser cleaning the trend?

Driven by the global wave of industrialization, as well as the in-depth implementation of environmental protection strategies such as "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality", laser cleaning, as a green and efficient cleaning method, is gradually welcomed by the market and has become the general trend of the development of the global cleaning market. According to a report by market research company Mordor Intelligence, the global laser cleaning market is expected to be $780 million in 2024 and will reach $1.53 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 14.61% between 2024 and 2029.

Behind this trend, laser cleaning technology can not be separated from its own unique advantages. Compared with traditional industrial cleaning methods, laser cleaning mainly has the following advantages:

First,Non-contact cleaning: laser cleaning does not require direct contact with the surface of the object, avoiding the damage caused by mechanical friction and chemical corrosion on the matrix, and protecting the integrity and accuracy of the object;Second,efficient and accurate: the laser beam has high energy density, good directivity, can quickly heat and remove pollutants, high cleaning efficiency and accurate positioning;Third, green environmental protection: the laser cleaning process does not need to use chemical solvents and a large amount of water resources, reducing environmental pollution and wastewater treatment costs, in line with the requirements of sustainable development;Fourth, a wide range of application: laser cleaning can deal with various materials and shapes of the surface of the object, including metal, non-metal, complex structural parts, etc., has a wide range of applicability;Fifth, it is easy to automate integration: laser cleaning equipment is easy to integrate with automation equipment such as robots to realize the automation and intelligent control of the cleaning process.

What are the typical application scenarios of laser cleaning?

At present, laser cleaning in the industrial field of application scenarios is very wide, its efficient, accurate, environmental characteristics make it play an important role in a number of industrial links, the following are a few typical application scenarios:

Surface treatment：Laser cleaning can efficiently remove contaminants such as oxides, oil stains and welding slag from metal surfaces, improving surface cleanliness and subsequent processing quality. In terms of mold cleaning, laser cleaning can quickly remove the pollutants on the surface of the mold, restore the original state of the mold, and avoid the loss of mold accuracy that may be caused by traditional cleaning methods.

Automobile manufacturing：In the automotive manufacturing industry chain, laser cleaning can be used to clean oil and impurities on the surface of the engine block, crankshaft, connecting rod and other parts to improve assembly accuracy and performance. In addition, laser cleaning also plays an important role in the local repair of the body and the removal of stubborn stains.

Precision manufacturing：In the semiconductor manufacturing process, laser cleaning can be used to remove small particles and contaminants from the wafer surface, improving product yield and reliability. For precision parts that require high precision machining, laser cleaning can ensure a thorough cleaning of the surface of the part to meet the strict processing requirements.

Cultural relics protection：Laser cleaning can be used to clean the oxides and dirt on the surface of metal cultural relics, restore the original appearance of cultural relics, and avoid damage to cultural relics. For dirt and mold on the surface of stone relics, laser cleaning can also provide an effective solution.

As an advanced light source supplier committed to serving precision manufacturing, GZTECH actively laid out the laser cleaning field as early as 2021, and launched 100~1000W single-mode and multi-mode GMC series cleaning lasers. Among them, the single-mode series beam has high quality, stable QCS output, strong cleaning ability, hand-held cleaning, flexible operation, and the multi-mode series has a flat-top beam, large output energy, high power, and small or even non-destructive damage to the substrate. GMC series cleaning laser is suitable for metal surface paint removal, rust removal, precision mold cleaning, cultural relic protection, high-end machine tools, track maintenance and other scenarios, can meet the cleaning requirements of different substrates, has been applied in a number of industries, and has been highly recognized by users.

In the future, with the growth of laser cleaning demand, the process of laser cleaning technology will also put forward higher requirements. GZTECH will continue to deepen the field of laser cleaning, through independent innovation and technology upgrades, to provide global customers with more efficient and environmentally friendly cleaning products and solutions.