Advances in large scale laser paint stripping Available to Purchase

At the 2010 ICALEO conference EWI introduced a new polygon scanner for laser paint stripping and coating removal. In the intervening two years this technology has advanced considerably. Newer versions of the polygon scanner have been designed and built, and this scanner technology has been used successfully with a variety of laser types to remove a wide range of coatings and paints. These EWI scanners have delivered the highest paint stripping efficiency, paint stripping productivity, and ease of effluent removal ever reported. Now that the fundamental capabilities of this scanner technology have been established, the remaining challenges of large scale, commercially viable, coating removal applications are being addressed. Key among these challenges is the need for real-time coating removal process control, which is required to accommodate overlap between stripping passes, variable coating thicknesses, and the increasing request to strip only to the primer coating. A color-based imaging solution to this specific challenge is presented here. Additionally, system considerations for deployment of both fiber and CO₂ lasers for coating removal from aircraft and other structures will be presented.