Rust Removal Using a Laser

It was vaporized by the intense heat of the laser beam. POOF!

The underlying metal is much more stable.

Pretty impressive. I wonder how well it works on cleaning BBQ grills.

I don't know about intense heat. The man puts his hand under it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSBGVhzGVxY

If you had the laser, who would need a BBQ grill anymore?! Just zap your steak. Leave it in one place a little longer and create "grill marks" on the meat!

Wow I'd like to rent one of those for my truck frame....the salt air has not been kind....

What's it cost?

if you look closely rust is being blown off in a fine dust.

A wire brush and POR is much cheaper.

Cheaper, but not as much fun!

It's sort of like a photon pressure washer!

Wish I could rent one to clean the frame on my truck!

Has anyone tried white vinegar and water 50/50 mix for dissolving rust....I hear fast and cheap....molasses works well too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlcL_vHODkc

Por 15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFo-MlDNBXc

I use white vinegar quite often. Great for taking light rust off old tools.

IS it really a Laser? It sounds more like something is creating a plazma arc.

Maybe "blowing it" with inert gas.......very effective if the video is real.....it does have that sound....

It is very impressive and is in fact a 1,00W Class IV laser. If I had an extra $500k laying around I'd get one without giving it a second thought.

http://www.cleanlaser.de/wEnglish/produkte/high-power-cl-1000.php?navanchor=2110014

Maybe I can convince my program we need one.

This does not look like a laser to me, rather a 100 kV or higher arcing device that includes the table in the circuit and that is chemically reducing the rust by replacing the oxygen with atmospheric nitrogen to form the dark patina of Fe2N, which is stable up to about 1000 degrees F. I am not sure I would want to cook my steak on this grill without careful temperature control to be sure nothing went above 500 F.

If you use it to remove rust from stainless steel, will it be permanent, will it also remove the contaminationt that is causing the rust?

According to my corrosion expert here at work (he was a past president of NACE), nitric acid is even better at removing the iron oxide that can form on stainless steel, which he is fond of saying, "Stainless steel is neither." Something about iron on stainless pulls more iron out of the base metal when you exceed 12% concentration causing the chromium oxide layer on the stainless to fail.

We spend a lot of time cleaning rust for stainless steel because the people we subcontract to don't clean their press break dies very well. Then after we clean the rust, using nitric acid, the rust keeps coming back. I looked them up, they have a model that can be carried around on your back, to a protable one on wheels and a stationary model.

That truly must be very annoying. I'm assuming you are familiar with the passivating processes of the ASTM A967 or AMS QQ-P-35. There must be still iron particles left behind if it continues to rust after a nitric bath.

It is, we have been warning venders to clean their dies first or we will start back charging them labor. One of them tells us that you're always going to have a little contamination from the press break but we never have any problems with it. He's been at our facility, he knows we are perfectly capable of doing what we ask him to do. Now we get smart aleck responses when they report jobs complete.

I wonder what would happen if it was directed at a mirrored surface?