In recent years, the application of laser cutting, welding, and precision marking and engraving has been rapidly promoted, forming segmented market sizes of over 10 billion yuan each. Laser manufacturing, as a tool, has gradually discovered new functions, and laser cleaning is an emerging process in recent years. As early as three or four years ago, it had been popular for a period of time, hyped up by some companies, and highly anticipated by many industry experts. However, due to technical and market application reasons, the application of laser cleaning has not been widely promoted and has not met industry expectations. Gradually, the topic of laser cleaning has been marginalized and seems to have been forgotten by people.

Traditional cleaning methods include mechanical friction cleaning, chemical corrosion cleaning, sandblasting impact cleaning, high-frequency ultrasonic cleaning, etc. However, these methods are either inefficient or generate a large amount of wastewater and dust, which does not meet the current national requirements for environmental protection and green production. Laser cleaning has the characteristics of no grinding, non-contact, and no thermal effect, and is easy to match with dust absorption and purification equipment. It is suitable for cleaning objects of various materials and is considered the most reliable and effective solution.

Laser cleaning has advantages

Laser cleaning is a cleaning method that uses high-frequency and high-energy laser pulses to irradiate the surface of a workpiece. The coating layer can instantly absorb focused laser energy, generate shock waves, and cause oil stains, rust spots, or coatings on the surface to evaporate or peel off instantly, effectively removing surface attachments or coatings at high speed. Short acting laser pulses, under appropriate parameters, will not harm the metal substrate. The development of lasers is an important factor in promoting laser cleaning processes, and currently the most widely used are high-frequency pulse fiber lasers and solid-state pulse lasers; Secondly, the optical components of laser cleaning hair are also very important factors.

When laser cleaning first came out, the beam of light swept through the rust stains and disappeared, just like a broom sweeping the floor, with extremely high efficiency, so it is considered black technology by people. Laser cleaning has a wide range of applications, including metal steel plates, railway locomotives/rails, ships/shipbuilding, automobile manufacturing, tire molds, as well as aircraft skins, engineering machinery, electronic manufacturing production line parts, petrochemical industry, mining, nuclear power, cultural relics, and even military weapons, all of which can find direct application scenarios.

However, at that time, the price of lasers was relatively high, and the stable use of lasers was mostly below 500 watts, with limited power. A laser cleaning machine cost over 600000 yuan, which made it impossible to expand its market application. We can see that the disadvantages of laser cleaning are that the price is slightly higher, and secondly, it is suitable for surface treatment. When encountering irregularly shaped workpieces, corners, dead corners, narrow spaces, or inner walls of pipes, the beam is difficult to reach or evenly irradiate, which will affect the effectiveness of laser cleaning.

Laser cleaning was first researched and used in European and American countries, and the technology is relatively mature, but there are only a few companies engaged in it, and the market size is not large. However, it was not until around 2005 that there were relevant papers introducing this technology in China, and it was not until after 2011 that a small number of laser cleaning techniques were truly applied, mainly targeting cultural relics. In 2016, domestic industrial laser cleaning machines appeared in bulk, and within the following three years, the domestic laser industry sparked a wave of attention to laser cleaning, even holding multiple professional conferences on laser cleaning topics.

Rise again after silence

Domestic enterprises engaged in laser cleaning equipment have also sprung up like mushrooms after rain, with over 70 companies engaged in this field. In fact, this field has received high attention and market sales have not yet exploded. After the hot topic of laser cleaning, it fell silent for two years.

After the domestic epidemic was controlled in 2020, the demand for laser equipment rapidly increased, and the price of lasers once again experienced a significant decline. Many people paid attention to the application of high-power cutting and welding, but at the same time, there were more inquiries from laser cleaning users, and some manufacturers' equipment shipments also achieved good growth. This is due to the decline in laser prices and breakthroughs in power technology, with supplies ranging from 200 watts to 2000 watts. Some domestic laser cleaning machines are priced as low as two to three hundred thousand, less than half of what they were a few years ago. Due to its relatively small market size, even with good growth, it did not attract much attention.

At present, laser cleaning has made market-oriented breakthroughs in areas such as new car manufacturing, high-speed rail wheelsets and bogies, and aircraft skin paint removal, and ship cleaning will gradually be applied in the future. It can be predicted that laser cleaning will enter the stage of comprehensive scale application, and the national shipment volume of related equipment products will usher in a period of rapid growth