Aerospace Aircraft Skin Laser Cleaning And Removal

 

1. Advantages of Laser Cleaning Machine for Removing Aircraft Skin
Aircraft safety is extremely important. Therefore, safety is considered to be the primary factor in all processes of aircraft manufacturing, including production and maintenance.

 

In order to ensure the safety of aircraft, aircraft need to be stripped and overhauled every five years or so. During aircraft maintenance, the paint on the aircraft surface must be removed and the aircraft skin surface must be checked for corrosion defects and fatigue cracks to avoid flight accidents. For careful removal of paint from aircraft skin surfaces, great attention should be paid to protecting the base material, i.e. not causing damage to it.

 

The paint stripping methods used in the past not only polluted the environment and harmed the health of operators, but also cost money. Compared with these traditional methods, laser cleaning machines have many advantages such as no pollution, no damage, and no stress. In addition, it can also be easily applied to automated production lines. More importantly, the laser cleaning machine can clean fine workpieces and various objects in small spaces with high precision and good cleaning effect. It is suitable for the maintenance of aircraft skins and the removal of paint on them.

 

 

2. Working Principle of Laser Cleaning Machine to Remove Aircraft Skin Paint
Laser beams have the characteristics of high energy density, controllable direction, and convergence. The laser cleaning machine uses it to destroy the bond between the paint and the aircraft skin, vaporize the paint, and remove it from the aircraft skin surface. When the paint on the aircraft skin absorbs the energy of the laser beam, it rapidly expands and vaporizes to reduce its force on the aircraft skin surface. As heat energy rises, paint particles on the aircraft skin vibrate and fall off.

 

The entire laser cleaning process of aircraft skin is roughly divided into four stages, namely laser vaporization and decomposition, laser peeling, thermal expansion of paint particles, aircraft skin surface vibration and paint separation.

 

The schematic diagram of laser cleaning is as follows:

 

 

3. Precautions for Application of Laser Cleaning Machine
In laser cleaning applications, it is necessary to consider the laser cleaning threshold for aircraft skin cleaning and the appropriate laser wavelength selection to achieve the best cleaning effect. The laser cleaning machine can change the structure and orientation of the aircraft skin paint, control the roughness of the aircraft skin, and enhance its overall performance without damaging the aircraft skin. The removal effect of aircraft skin paint is mainly affected by the beam characteristics, the physical parameters of the aircraft skin and paint, and the paint absorption capacity of the laser beam.