Laser rust removal, a type of laser cleaning, is an effective process for cleaning up metal parts. Using a fiber laser cleaning system, rust and other contaminants can be quickly and completely removed without damaging the metal underneath.

Laser rust removal is a great alternative to manual and chemical cleaning methods since rust is removed with greater precision and lower recurring costs. It’s also a great way to reduce your environmental impact.

Get Rid of Consumables & Go Green

As a green technology, laser cleaning replaces methods that remove rust with consumables or chemicals. It’s the only solution that meets environmental protection regulations. Plus, pulsed fiber lasers have low power consumption. Laser cleaning does generate a small amount of dust in the air. It can be vacuumed instantly with a dust extraction system, which we provide and preconfigure for you if needed.

Eliminate Manual Labor

Spending a mass amount of manual labor to clean every single part is inefficient. It is expensive and can be performed more efficiently with robots. Eliminate manual labor through laser cleaning, a technology that can easily be fully or semi-automated. You can either choose a standard turnkey solution or partner us up with your system integrator for a solution customized for your plant.

Minimize Maintenance

Everyone who uses abrasive blasting faces the same problem: their machine is constantly interrupted. Whether it’s for the presence of sand, the nozzle’s condition or its replacement, blasting machines require regular monitoring and maintenance. Laser rust removal is a non-contact method that continuously removes rust while drastically lowering maintenance costs.

Create a Safe Workplace

Lasers in manufacturing environments are extremely safe when integrated with a dust extraction system and a Class-1 laser safety enclosure. With these things in place, operators who are near the laser system don’t need personal protective equipment for respiratory, hearing or body protection, only eye protection. In addition, they no longer handle dangerous materials. 

All materials have characteristics that define how they react under specific conditions. For rust removal on metals, you need to pay attention to the ablation threshold.  Laser parameters can be set so that the laser beam’s intensity is just above the ablation threshold of rust but below that of the metal being cleaned. If the laser beam is shone on the metal surface at an intensity below its ablation threshold, the energy of the laser beam is dispersed as heat once rust is removed.  The result is a clean surface with rust and dirt layers vaporized without permanently affecting the base material.

The speed at which rust is removed depends on rust thickness and laser power. Our high-power systems remove typical light rust at approximately 50 cm2/sec. The thickest forms of rust can be removed at 5 cm2/sec. The best way to find out the details for your application is to have us run tests on your parts.

Empirical tests have shown that the quality and speed of cleaning can vary significantly depending on the thickness, chemical composition, colour, and surface finish of the coating and substrate. This emphasises the importance of optimising the laser output for the job at hand.

Laser cleaning is also replacing traditional methods for weld preparation whereby protective galvanic layers are selectively removed from metals before they are joined.

Example: the removal of zinc oxide from mild steel in readiness for welding and subsequent re-galvanisation.

• For this application, the longest, more-energetic nanosecond pulses were found to be beneficial for total oxide removal and best edge quality.
• Process speeds of >100 mm²/s are achievable at 200 W average power. 

Another exciting area of surface functionalisation that is benefiting from the latest breed of superfast fiber lasers is laser texturing of stainless steel surfaces for improvements in distillation, petrochemistry, refrigeration, and nuclear power generation applications. In this process, it is possible to create microstructures that significantly increase the nucleate pool heat transfer coefficients, improving boiling efficiency not only for pure fluids, but also for binary mixtures.

New ultra fast switching (nano seconds) laser texturing techniques can also be applied to control the wettability of surfaces, to provide hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties. This is an important property for components used in aquatic media or other aggressive environments to prevent corrosion, and prolong lifetimes.