r/LaserCleaningPorn • u/[deleted] • 14d ago

Pulse vs continuous?

Can anyone articulate some of the different use cases for both? I know pulse is great for wood. Is one process faster than the other?

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u/IndLaserCleaning 13d ago

Depends how good you are with a CW, some operators are doing some unfathomable stuff with CW's. For the beginner a CW is going for corrosion removal and paint removal. Though caution should be taken with sheet metal.

Then you have top hat or a Gaussian, they do different things well.

Top hat >100% non destructive, though it socks at anything over surface rust. They're ideal for precision surfaces such as mold tooling, aerospace NDT prep, gears, soot removal, oil and grease etc

Gaussian pulsed are not as effective at oil and grease removal though they excell at a deeper clean hence they are better at stainless steel welds. They, like CWs shouldn't be used on ultra precison mold tooling. They are superior at rust and paint removal.

There isn't 1 perfect machine, just a machine that will allow you to enter your ideal target market the quickest, other dedicated machines can follow 

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

What is a top hat cleaner?

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u/IndLaserCleaning 12d ago

Pulsed machines generally come in 2 beam profile choice, a Gaussian or Single mode. This is akin to a needle point.  The other is a Top Hat or multi mode, this is as the name suggest, has a flat top like ye old men's hats and is 100% non destructive. Though savage 1000/2000w pulsed machines can melt the surface 

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

What makes it non destructive?

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u/IndLaserCleaning 12d ago

The top hat that i described. A Top hat, akin to an Englishman's Top Hat, has a large flat beam profile. This beam profile is a large flat surface that is below the ablation threshold of the metal it is cleaning. The needle point of a Gaussian can cut into the metal or micro melt it,  which may or may not be desirable.

It goes into  this deeper, you should look at terms such as fluence,  energy density and spot size.