Recently, I’ve seen several rust removal videos. At first I thought laser sort of “scraped off” the rust, but looking closely, I see no rust being blown away or rust powder left on the table where they perform such removal. What is really happening? Does the laser gets evaporated in the air? Or is it being “melt”? I’m curious. Cheers!
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The rust and dirt get straight up atomised by the laser and escape into the air. It is honestly that straightforward.
The only trick is that the laser energy and wavelength is specifically tuned to remove the plaque without also damaging the fresh metal underneath.
The rust and dirt get straight up atomised by the laser and escape into the air. It is honestly that straightforward.
The only trick is that the laser energy and wavelength is specifically tuned to remove the plaque without also damaging the fresh metal underneath.
Most common metals – like steel and aluminium – are reflective, and won’t absorb any of the energy from the laser. By contrast, the rust on the surface is highly absorbent of the laser’s energy – and ‘ablates’ from the surface until the shiny metal underneath is exposed.
Note that this isn’t burning or otherwise chemically converting the rust into another metal – it just gets ‘hot’ enough to come loose and go into the air as dust, which will (eventually) gather on the workbench. It’s still iron oxide.
Most common metals – like steel and aluminium – are reflective, and won’t absorb any of the energy from the laser. By contrast, the rust on the surface is highly absorbent of the laser’s energy – and ‘ablates’ from the surface until the shiny metal underneath is exposed.
Note that this isn’t burning or otherwise chemically converting the rust into another metal – it just gets ‘hot’ enough to come loose and go into the air as dust, which will (eventually) gather on the workbench. It’s still iron oxide.
The rust is basically vaporized and sucked off by airflow, there is air cleaning machinery down the ventilation line that catches it. This is done with nanosecond pulsed fiber lasers, it’s putting on the order of megawatt of peak power in a rather small spot, things don’t stay solid at these sorts of light intensities. It exploits the difference in reflectivity and heat conductivity of metals vs oxides. Oxides absorb light better and don’t conduct heat away as fast, so they get ablated off leaving underlying metal fairly untouched.
The rust is basically vaporized and sucked off by airflow, there is air cleaning machinery down the ventilation line that catches it. This is done with nanosecond pulsed fiber lasers, it’s putting on the order of megawatt of peak power in a rather small spot, things don’t stay solid at these sorts of light intensities. It exploits the difference in reflectivity and heat conductivity of metals vs oxides. Oxides absorb light better and don’t conduct heat away as fast, so they get ablated off leaving underlying metal fairly untouched.
One thing you might want to be a little careful of (hopefully you’ll know this anyway, but I don’t want anybody to suffer by being caught out, so I’ll say it anyway) is that there are quite a lot of ‘faked up’ scam videos going around at the moment from companies trying to sell ‘laser rust removal’ tools for suspiciously low prices, as if the technology’s suddenly been cracked to make it super cost-effective. As far as I’m aware, it hasn’t, and the genuine tools are still very expensive.
It’s a bit like the explosion in the quantity of ‘paper-thin TV’ videos going around. Companies have started making exceptionally convincing videos marketing products that they simply don’t have available for the prices that they’re claiming. I hope it helps.
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