Financial Payback of Laser Coating Removal Operations
Coating removal is an ablative process applied to a variety of substrates, including composites, glass, plastics, and metals. Also, it involves several costs. Research and several studies are comparing coating-removal processes. This article highlights the financial payback of the coating removal operation to help you fully understand the associated finances.
Components of Coating Removal Operations
The financial analysis of coating removal operations involves several components, which are listed below.
1. It requires the capital cost for the necessary equipment, enclosures, and structures required.
2. It also includes the labour cost along with operations, man-hours, training, clean-up, labour overhead, and anticipated on-the-job injuries.
3. It also has a waste disposal cost, including the collection, transportation, storage, tipping, taxes, related labour, and charges related to dangerous elements.
4. It also includes the out-of-service cost of the serviced equipment.
5. The equipment also has the cost of damage.
6. Processing costs are also involved in the supplies, tools, materials, and power.
There is research comparing the LaserBlast-200 to standard methods of surface preparation and coating removal. Stripping rate is one of the factors that significantly affect operational readiness, flow production, and inventory availability. One comprehensive study reported the following comparative results.
| Strip Rates | Technologies |
| 0.03 to 0.22 sq. ft. per minute | Media Blast |
| 0.05 to 0.07 sq. ft. per minute | Media Blast |
| 0.002 to 0.005 sq. ft. per minute | Chemical Application |
| 0.0017 to 0.07 sq. ft. per minute | Hand Grinding or Sanding |
| 0.80 sq. ft. per minute | LaserBlast-500 |
The strip rates are fully burdened for media blasting, hand grinding and sanding, water blasting, and chemical application, as reported in the Joint Group on Pollution Prevention Study (2001). The strip rates are standardized to a 1 mil coating thickness.
The strip rate of the LaserBlast-200 is determined by the laser system's average pulsed power. The formula for calculating the LaserBlast-200 strip rate is given below.
Note: One mil = 0.001inch
Therefore, the strip rate for LaserBlast-200 is 0.80 sq. ft./min, with 500W strips used as the average pulsed power.
The strip rate of the LaserBlast-200 contributes significantly to eradication. Furthermore, several additional research studies are used to derive the summary of the total effective cost of aircraft fuselage decoating. Check out the table below to see the effective cost per sq. ft
| Title of the Study | Title of the Aircraft | Method Applied | Effective Cost/Ft2 |
| Pollution Prevention Opportunity Data Sheet[1] | F-4 Fighter | Plastic Media Blast | $5.00 |
| Pollution Prevention Opportunity Data Sheet | F-4 Fighter | Chemical Solvent | $10.00 |
| AMTIAC Newsletter, Winter 1001[2] | T-45 Trainer | Plastic Media Blast | $11.00 |
| Joint Services Pollution Prevention Handbook[3] | T-38 Trainer | Hand Sanding | $13.00 |
| Joint Services Pollution Prevention Handbook | T-38 Trainer | Chemical Solvent | $18.00 |
| AMTIAC Newsletter, Winter 1001 | T-45 Trainer | Chemical Solvent | $22.00 |
The effective costs (fully burdened) include preparation time, labor, power consumed, damage-prevention precautions, consumable material costs, and amortized equipment costs. All these costs are standardized to contemporary times, based on the references and published sources.
Allied Scientific Pro offers a fully burdened LaserBlast-200, with an average effective cost of $2.00 to $3.00 per ft2, based on site-specific variables. There is a reduction in the effective cost, resulting from current shipping methods that ensure rapid payback. There are several other advantages of the LaserBlast-200 that can be equally significant, such as reduced toxic emissions, reduced operator exposure, the ability to process surfaces, the ability to develop solutions, and improved operational readiness. However, examples of the abilities required to process surfaces include irregular, complex, fragile, and inaccessible surfaces, which are difficult to achieve with conventional methods.
Additionally, there is a difference in every situation. Should you have any inquiries, feel free to ask us.
Skilled Man-Hours
There is one operator per system for an hour, as required in the manual for Allied Scientific Pro’s LaserBlast-200. The operator can do both, operate the system and maintain it too. However, the maintenance of the operation primarily consists of changing and checking the specific filter as required. However, the system can efficiently be operated by a semi-skilled laborer. The training is an hour long. In addition, the total man-hours required to complete a stripping job are determined by the stripping rate. That is later used to evaluate the laser’s power output.
There are additional considerations to keep in mind when comparing with other methods, including the following.
Defensive Clothing
The majority of conventional methods, including media blasting, scraping, sanding, and solvent use, require protective clothing, and in some cases, respirators and supplied-air systems. However, toxic exposure still occurs despite breathing precautions and protective clothing. The Allied Scientific Pro’s LaserBlast-200 does not require any protective layering or clothing except glasses or eyewear, which ideally costs about $200 per operator.
Lesser Chances of Injury
The rough methods, i.e., sanding and scraping, lead to severe injuries. However, with Allied Scientific Pro’s LaserBlast-200, these chances of injury are eradicated.
Reduced Waste Disposal Cost
One of the unique benefits of the Allied Scientific Pro’s LaserBlast-200 system is the ability to detect particulate material in the filtered paper. With this capability, the problem of waste disposal is simplified. Additionally, Allied Scientific Pro only requires the monitor and, as required, changing the paper HEPA filter to capture the ablated material, instead of controlling, capturing, shipping, and disposing of the tons of contaminated liquid solvents. However, only some of the contaminated filters containing captured particulate would be considered waste and require disposal.
Additionally, only 12% of the stripping, by weight, is generated by the LaserBlast-200, which is as much waste as the media blast, while 0.3% is solvent stripping. So, this ensures that LaserBlast-200 captures waste in dry paper filters, simplifying and reducing waste disposal costs in an easy-to-handle way.
Lower Out-of-the-Service Cost
The out-of-service cost is the cost of extra equipment, filling out-of-service periods, or service interruptions. Most of the time, the Allied Scientific Pro's LaserBlast-200 is a perfect fit from other perspectives. Additionally, it delivers greater speed than conventional approaches, resulting in lower out-of-service costs. It is common to achieve a tenfold reduction in out-of-service expenses; however, the exact time you save with LaserBlast-200 depends on your specific case.
No Potential Damages
The potential for damage is again a chief and beneficial feature of the Allied Scientific Pro. There is zero percent possibility your substrate will be damaged using the Allied Scientific Pro’s LaserBlast-200 technology. However, there are other methods you can use that could be very problematic for your substrate's condition.
Media Blast
This method is known for its high risk of damaging fragile substrates. These fragile substrates are composite fuselages and thin aluminum. Due to the high risk of damaging the fragile substrates using the Media Blast method, the aircraft can be blasted only once. On the other hand, the LaserBlast-200 technology has no limit on the time you can clean your substrate. However, the durable substrates, like a ship’s hull, should be blasted at least twice. The first blast should remove the coating, while the second should restore the profile needed for the new coating to be optimized and accepted. While the LaserBlast-200 only removes the coating, it leaves the substrate surface in a virgin condition, ready for new coatings without further issues during the process.
Furthermore, the remaining LaserBlast-200 methods and processes that do not use Allied Scientific Pro’s controls have resulted in surface reflows of high-strength steels, reducing ductility, increasing rigidity, and decreasing overall strength.
Solvents and Scrapers
These are used in OEM manual maintenance of the fuselages. If used improperly, scrapers can severely damage the surface. However, the aluminum, which is solvent-softened, can be vague to the previously existing cracks. This is why they are undetected during the testing method. Also, the use of highly concentrated solvents, when combined with the metal substrates, results in deterioration of the structure.
With Allied Scientific Pro's LaserBlast-200, you will be protected from surface damage, using sophisticated real-time, in-line sensing before every pulse to detect the target coating. When the sensors detect the desired condition (Shininess, color, roughness, or any other condition), the pulse is prevented from firing.
Visit our dedicated website on Laser Cleaning Machines to learn more
References:
[1] http://www.p2pays.org / ref / 01/00597.pdf
[2] http://amtiac.alionscience. com/ pdf/ AMPQ5_4.pdf#ART02
[3] http://p2library.nfesc.navy.mil / P2- Opportunity_ Handbook/8_1_7. html