Investigation of paint removal by atmospheric pressure plasma jet

Acrylic polyurethane paint on the surface of 2A12 Al alloy was cleaned utilizing an atmospheric pressure plasma jet in this work.The dynamic evolution of the paint removal process during plasma treatment with time was explored through analysis of morphology and chemical states.The results showed that although the thickness of paint could be reduced effectively with an increase in cleaning time,the removal rate of paint gradually decreased with time.During the initial cleaning process range,its original smooth morphology of paint turned rugged quickly and was almost unchanged with further plasma treatment.Element and chemical state analysis showed that the content of C in the paint layer decreased obviously after plasma treatment.In contrast,the O content increased remarkably.The cleaning mechanism could be mainly attributed to the reaction between active O-containing species in air plasma and organic components in the paint.After removal of superficial organic matter,residue inorganic metal oxide substances aggregated on the base.The exposed metal oxides on the one hand elevated the superficial O content,but on the other hand hindered further plasma penetration,resulting in a gradual decrease in cleaning rate with cleaning time.Therefore,physical wiping was proposed to be incorporated with the plasma method and effective removal of paint was realized.

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.

Influence of water environment on paint removal and the selection criteria of laser parameters

Laser paint removal in a water environment does not diffuse ablation pollution products into air.Characteristics of water,such as high specific heat and heat flux,generate different effects of the laser paint removal than in an air environment.In this study,the effects of air and water environments on the mechanism and effect of laser paint removal are analyzed and compared experimentally and theoretically.In air,thermodynamic ablation causes removal of paint,whereas in water,stress coupled with plasma shock waves cause tear and splash removal of paint layers after fracture and damage.Fracture and pressure thresholds of the paint and substrate,respectively,indicate the optimum energy density range for laser paint removal in water,providing a reference for engineering applications.

Mechanism and threshold fluence of nanosecond pulsed laser paint removal

In this paper, the nanosecond pulse laser surface treatment of the waterborne anti-rust paint on HT250 gray cast iron was carried out. The area and depth of the per-pulse laser ablation paint layer were measured. The threshold of laser energy density was determined through the relations with ablation area and depth. The paint removal mechanism was discussed by analyzing the ablation features of the paint layer on laser cleaning. The features of the paint removal under various laser energy densities were characterized, and the process parameters in the experiments were investigated.The results showed that there were four thresholds and three kinds of mechanisms in the paint removal process with nanosecond pulsed laser. The ablation threshold of substrate was deepened on the laser parameters. The ablation processes were included thermal ablation, thermal vibration and paint ionization concurrently, respectively. The surface cracks and paint debris were observed at the edge of the cleaning path, which were ascribed to the vibration effect by laser. In addition, the vibration effect could significantly increase the width of paint removal. Paint ionization has also a significant influence on the substrate morphology. Paint ionization would have an obvious impact on the formation of the substrate morphology. It is desirable to fabricate approach to remove the paint layer without damaging the substrate under optimized laser parameters by nanosecond pulse laser.