Laser cleaning of steel structure surface for paint removal and repaint adhesion

Paint removal from steel structure is executed for shipyards of marine and offshore engineering. Due to environmental unfriendliness and unhealthy drawbacks of sand blasting technique, laser ablation technique is proposed as a substituting method. By absorbing high energy of the 1064 nm pulsed laser, the paint is vaporized quickly. The ablated debris is then collected by using a suction pump. Initial metal surface of the steel is exposed when laser beam irradiates perpendicularly and scans over it. The cleaned surface fulfills the requirements of surface preparation standards ISO 8501 of SA2. The adhesion is further characterized with pull-off test after carrying out painting with Jotamastic 87 aluminum paint. The repainting can be embedded onto the laser cleaned surface to bond much more tightly. The excellent adhesion strength of 20 MPa between repainted coating and the substrate is achieved, which is higher than what is required by shipyards applications.