Today's manufacturing industry is developing rapidly, and the application scale of various mechanical and electronic products has increased greatly. However, these devices require some maintenance before assembly and after operation for a period of time, including the cleaning of some materials or components. Traditional cleaning processes such as mechanical friction cleaning, chemical corrosion cleaning, strong impact cleaning, high-frequency ultrasonic cleaning, etc., are time-consuming, cannot be automated, and often have harmful effects on the environment. At the same time, there is no reliable way to measure the effectiveness of cleaning. In contrast, laser cleaning has the advantages of no pollution, no consumables, low cost, high efficiency, no contact, no stress, no damage, good controllability, precision cleaning can be selected, and dangerous areas that are difficult to reach can be cleaned, and is considered to be the most reliable and effective solution to cleaning problems in the future.

Action mechanism

Laser cleaning is the use of narrow pulse width, high power density laser acting on the surface of the object to be cleaned, under the joint action of rapid light vibration, vaporization, decomposition and plasma stripping mechanism, so that the dirt is removed from the substrate to achieve surface cleaning. At present, there are three typical laser cleaning methods: laser ablative cleaning, liquid film assisted laser cleaning and laser shock wave cleaning. Among the above three methods, the laser ablation cleaning method has simple operating conditions and is the most widely used. Selecting the right laser type and adopting optimized process parameters can remove various coatings, paints, particles or dirt. Although the other two methods also have their own advantages, but the application is still in the research stage, there is no large-scale promotion.

Laser cleaning machine is mainly composed of laser, beam transmission shaping unit, automatic control operating system, cleaning quality detection protection unit, displacement platform and so on.

Application field

Laser cleaning technology research started in the mid-1980s, but it was not until the early 1990s that it really entered industrial production, and it has been well applied in mold cleaning, material surface treatment, large-scale equipment and precision machinery, such as paint and rust removal. In addition, European countries generally retain a large number of historical relics and ancient buildings, many churches, castles, universities, museums, sculptures, etc. are hundreds of years or even thousands of years of history, Europeans pay great attention to the protection and restoration of these "antiques", since the 1990s has begun to use laser cleaning technology for cultural relic restoration deconsolidation.

Current situation at home and abroad

The decontamination range of foreign laser cleaning is very wide, from the thick rust layer to the fine particles on the laser surface can be removed, has nearly 30 years of experience in the use of decontamination involved in the laser cleaning experiment used in the type of equipment is also more, the wavelength range of lasers used is wide. However, the development of laser cleaning technology is uneven, some have achieved industrialization, and some are still in the laboratory stage. At present, the Laser cleaning market in Europe and the United States is stable, and the main suppliers include P-laser, CleanLaser, Adapt Laser Systems, General Lasertronics, IPG, etc. Specifically including the cleaning of laser mold, has been developed to 1000 W laser manual cleaning machine; Electronic circuit cleaning using 248 nm, 3 W, 20 ns laser, has achieved industrialization; Using 248 nm and 5 W nanosecond ultraviolet light to clean the chip, the effect is not super good. In the field of photomask, ultraviolet laser has completely replaced the traditional chemical cleaning method; In terms of laser rust removal and laser pollutant removal, it has been applied on a large scale, and experiment precedes theory. In addition, experimental verification has begun in the field of semiconductors, magnetic heads and insulators.

China's laser cleaning technology research and equipment development started late, basically to track the development of foreign countries, although in a relatively short period of time to achieve some results, but compared with foreign countries there is a big gap. At present, the research institutions engaged in laser cleaning include the laser fusion center of the China Academy of Engineering Physics, the remanufacturing center of the PLA Armored Force Engineering College, Harbin Institute of Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Nankai University and so on. Although the academic research articles on laser cleaning have gradually increased in recent years, the types of cleaning materials and application fields have gradually expanded, but the development of research in various fields is unbalanced, and many problems have not been solved, for example, in some areas compared with traditional processes such as sandblasting and chemical cleaning, the efficiency of laser cleaning has no advantages.

There are many domestic enterprises engaged in the development of laser cleaning equipment, but due to the relatively new application, it will take some time to wait for the growth of the market. Dazu laser intelligent equipment Group, Huagong Laser, Ming Lei laser and other cleaning equipment can rely on the accumulation of original brands to win some orders, which is more difficult for start-ups. Related laser manufacturers are mainly Chuangxin laser, Reek laser, Haifu photon, Zhuxi laser, Feibo laser, Zhongke four Xiang, Guoko laser, etc. At present, the highest output power achieved in China is 800W laser produced by Haifu photon, and Chuangxin laser is developing 1000W laser, and has achieved 1000W power output only IPG one.

Market prospect

According to the market research report, the global laser cleaning market will be worth $589 million in 2018, and this value is expected to reach $724 million by 2023, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.22% between 2018 and 2023. It is understood that since 2018, all laser cleaning equipment companies have achieved good growth, and it is conservatively estimated that sales in the first half of the year increased by more than 60% over last year. On the one hand, it is because the number of enterprises engaged in laser cleaning equipment has increased, and all kinds of machines have emerged in an endless stream, which has pushed the price down. On the other hand, some potential users began to purchase laser cleaning equipment this year after watching and understanding. On the whole, the market is in the rising stage and the prospects are broad.

However, it needs to be faced with the fact that there are still some shortcomings in China's laser cleaning market. For example, domestic laser technology and industrialization for cleaning are still behind foreign countries; Laser cleaning process has many applications, but has not yet formed a mature system; There are no guiding testing methods, instruments and industry standards. This requires the relevant domestic research institutes, production enterprises, terminal application units and other joint efforts to solve the problems of China's laser cleaning industry.