LASER CLEANING
Takes off the paint, rust or coating. Leaves what’s underneath alone.
A pulsed fibre laser lifts coatings, rust and contamination off a surface a fraction of a millimetre at a time. Set for the material, it takes the paint and leaves the metal. Sandblasting drives grit and moisture into the surface, and grinding puts heat and stress into it. The laser adds nothing and distorts nothing.
What it takes off
- Paint, primer and powder coat
- Rust, mill scale and oxide
- Soot, smoke and fire residue
- Mould, lichen and biological growth
- Oil, grease and release agents from moulds and tooling
What it takes it off
- Mild steel, cast iron and wrought iron
- Stainless steel, aluminium, brass and bronze
- Sandstone, brick and other masonry
- Concrete
- Timber, fibreglass and other surfaces: ask, it depends on the coating and the material
If your material isn’t listed, send a photo and ask.
Two lasers, because one doesn’t do everything
We run a pulsed laser and a continuous-wave laser. They remove material in different ways, and picking the wrong one is how surfaces get damaged or jobs take twice as long.
The pulsed unit delivers very short, high-energy pulses with almost no heat build-up in the substrate. It’s the one for heritage stone and cast iron, thin sheet, aluminium and alloy, threads, engraving, moulds and anything where the surface has to come out exactly as it went in.
Heavy work
The continuous-wave unit puts steady energy into the surface and clears heavy rust, mill scale and thick coatings off robust steel much faster than pulsed can. It’s the one for structural steel, plate, heavy castings and industrial plant, where speed matters and the substrate can take it.
We choose between them from the photo, and confirm on the first pass. You don’t need to know which one you need. That’s our job.
Where it’s the right tool
Heritage fabric
Stone, brick and cast iron that blasting would scar. The laser can be turned down far enough that a conservator can set the limit on the first pass and watch it held.
Occupied buildings
No grit, no slurry, no chemical smell. Fume extraction runs at the head. Tenants stay put and the car park stays open.
Steel that has to stay true
The energy only goes into the layer being removed, so panels, plate and castings don’t warp the way they can under blasting or grinding. Threads, engraving, moulds and tooling keep their dimensions.
When another method is better
Heavy scale on thick steel, coating specs that call for a blast profile, and large areas of concrete are usually blasting, grinding or washing jobs. We do those too, so you get the method that suits the job. Surface preparation →
Why we built the business around it
It adds nothing to the surface, so there’s no grit, moisture or residue left in the material to cause trouble under the next coating. It puts no mechanical or heat stress into the substrate, so steel stays flat and castings keep their detail. And there’s no mess: no grit to sweep, no slurry to drain, no chemicals to dispose of. What comes off is captured at the filter.
THE PROCESS
How a laser job runs
- 01
Send a photo
A photo and a rough size is enough. We’ll tell you what we’d do and what it involves before anyone drives out.
- 02
Method chosen
Laser, blasting, washing or grinding, depending on the surface and what’s on it.
- 03
Removal
Only the layer that has to go. With the laser, nothing is added to the surface.
- 04
Inspection
We check it with you. If a spot isn’t right, we fix it before we leave.
- 05
Handover
The surface ready for the next step, with photos of what came off.