Wet Laser Cleaning of Paint Layers from the Surface of a Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP).

By monitoring the surface temperature of a carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) sample, we designed a wet laser cleaning method to successfully remove the paint and surface epoxy resin layer without damaging the CFRP substrate. The temperature and stress distributions at the interface between the epoxy resin and CFRP were simulated by the heat conduction equation. The variation trend of temperature and stress with the average laser power was obtained and the cleaning threshold was given. A 1064 nm acoustic-optical Q-switched laser was used for cleaning by scanning the painted CFRP sample at a certain speed with different laser powers and the cleaning effect was monitored by measuring the temperature in real-time. The cleaning mechanism in the wet laser cleaning of CFRP is indicated to be the thermal stress stripping mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]