【Reprint】Interview with Laser House | Dr. Jin talks about the development trend of laser cleaning in the next 5 years

Laser cleaning performance is superior and more environmentally friendly. At present, laser cleaning is widely used in cultural relics restoration, medical cosmetology, tire molds, industrial manufacturing and other fields. In the future, with the improvement of laser power and accuracy, laser cleaning will further expand the marine, aerospace, and precision electronics markets. With the rapid development of the domestic laser industry, the price of laser light source has been declining, and the price of laser cleaning machine has also decreased.

Recently, Laser Home interviewed Shenzhen Water Drop Laser Technology Co., Ltd., an innovative company focusing on process development and product research in the field of laser cleaning. Dr. Jin Yang, founder and general manager of Shuidi Laser, talked about the development trend of laser cleaning in the next five years, and put forward the vision of striving to make the company a technological innovation enterprise focusing on laser cleaning, with sales exceeding 5 million yuan and offices and branches all over the country within two years.

The output value in 2021 will double compared with the previous year, and it is expected that the output value will increase significantly in 2022

The initial team started construction in 2015 and was based on the UK-based ALT laser cleaning company, and then returned to China in 2018 to officially establish Waterdrop Laser. With the R&D team led by a number of returnee doctors as the core, after several years of development, Shuidi Laser has developed into a leading enterprise in the domestic laser cleaning industry with leading technology and concepts. In 2021, the annual output value will double compared with the previous year, and Dr. Jin said that this year, with the expansion of the market and the reduction of the cost of the whole machine, the output value is expected to increase significantly.

In the years of rapid development, Shuidi Laser has passed the ISO9001 certification of quality management system, ISO14001 certification of environmental management system, and ISO45001 certification of occupational health and safety management system, and won the "2021 Red Light Award - China Laser Equipment Innovation Contribution Award", which is known as one of the highest honorary awards in the domestic laser industry. Won the "Shenzhen Science and Technology Small and Medium-sized Enterprise", "Guangdong Laser Industry Association Member Unit", "Dongguan Machinery Mold Industry Association Member Unit", "Guangdong Province Contract-abiding and Trustworthy Enterprise" and other honors, Dr. Jin said that this year, Shuidi Laser is sure to pass the national high-tech enterprise certification.

Shuidi Laser won the "2021 Red Light Award - China Laser Equipment Innovation Contribution Award"

Up to now, Shuidi Laser has more than 20 patents related to laser cleaning, has established strategic cooperative relations in the field of laser cleaning with many domestic university scientific research institutions and core light source enterprises, and has a total area of more than 2000,30 square meters in Shenzhen "Laser Cleaning Joint Research Center" jointly built with Harbin Institute of Technology Welding Group. At present, there are more than 20 researchers, and there are more than <> sets of various laser processing systems such as femtosecond, picosecond, nanosecond, quasi-continuous, CW laser, and lasers of various bands.

Serving more than 3000,<> enterprises, the products are widely used in various industries

Dr. Jin explained to the laser home that the main reason why Shuidi Laser can develop into a leading enterprise in the domestic laser cleaning industry is its own core competitiveness. In terms of talents, the core team of Shuidi Laser comes from returnees and top universities in China, with strong R&D strength; In terms of technical advantages, it has independent optical design, customized development of laser cleaning head and domestic leading laser cleaning technology; In terms of process advantages, process research and development has the characteristics of simplicity and intelligence, and has mature process experience and database.

Up to now, the water drop laser has served more than 3000,<> enterprises, laser cleaning products have been used in Harbin Institute of Technology, Guangxi University, Zhejiang University of Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Modern Physics and other advanced scientific institutes, China Aerospace, China Aviation Development, China Xidian, and many well-known tire factories at home and abroad have become the company's customers.

Water drop laser products include 50W-200 low-power nanosecond laser cleaning system, 500W-2KW high-power nanosecond pulse laser cleaning equipment, 1KW-6KW continuous laser cleaning system, 2KW+300W, 4KW+500W, 6KW+1KW composite laser cleaning system. The working modes include handheld, workstation, automatic manipulator, automatic assembly line and other working modes, and the optimal laser cleaning process and scheme can be customized and developed according to customer needs. At present, it has been widely used in automobile, rail transit, aircraft, aerospace, chemical industry, bridge, shipbuilding, electronics, new energy and other industries.

Water droplet laser - large-area laser paint removal for high-speed rail carriages

Actively lay out the new energy lithium battery industry and vigorously improve the efficiency of laser cleaning

Since 2020, with the rapid start of market-oriented demand, more abundant new energy models, and gradually clear product stratification and positioning, the national new energy vehicle production from 2016 to 2020 has increased from 51,6 to 136.6 million, and the sales volume has increased from 50,7 to 186.7 million. In 2021, the production reached 354.5 million units, and the sales volume reached 352.1 million units, with a year-on-year increase of 159.52% in production and 88.59% in sales. The power battery industry is closely related to the new energy vehicle industry, benefiting from the rebound of the new energy market, and power battery manufacturers have started a high-speed growth mode. From 2016 to 2020, the installed capacity of power batteries in China increased from 28.3GWh to 62.9GWh. In 2021, the installed capacity of power batteries was 140GWh, a year-on-year increase of 122.6%. The installed capacity of the top five leading enterprises in the market occupies 82% of the market share, and the market concentration is high.

"As early as 2018, we paid great attention to the application of laser cleaning in the new energy lithium battery industry, and continued to invest in technology research and development in view of the dilemma that the efficiency of laser cleaning machines on the existing market is not high." Dr. Jin answered the current development status of the new energy lithium battery industry. In the past two years, Shuidi Laser has successfully launched a composite laser cleaning process of 6KW continuous + 1KW pulse, which makes up for the lack of power through process optimization. The cleaning efficiency of this product is 1% of that of the 500KW single pulse laser cleaning machine, which is one of the most efficient laser cleaning products on the market.

With the rapid development of new energy vehicles and the continuous expansion of demand, the safety and production efficiency of their core components, power batteries, have attracted much attention. Towards the era of 100 million kWh, the requirements for vehicle-grade manufacturing and power battery safety performance have been greatly improved, and the defect rate of power batteries has increased from ppm (parts per million) to ppb (parts per billion) level, which also puts forward higher requirements for laser intelligent equipment enterprises.

Laser cleaning can reach Sa3 level in the cleaning ability of the surface of the cell, the removal rate is more than 99.9%, and there is no stress on the surface of the cell. Compared with other cleaning methods such as ultrasonic cleaning or mechanical grinding, the physical and chemical indicators such as the surface hardness of the battery cell can be guaranteed to the greatest extent and the service life of the battery can be prolonged. In addition, laser cleaning also has great alternative advantages in more than a dozen other processes such as battery cover electrophoretic paint removal and foil label cleaning.

The development of high-end and civilian products, laser miniaturization applications, and continuous innovation

In terms of technology, Shuidi Laser has always followed the development path of laser cleaning products that are more cost-effective to replace traditional industrial cleaning, and produces portable, efficient, cost-effective and stable and reliable products. On the one hand, it will develop to high-end, replace sandblasting machines, and develop to high-power or even ultra-high-power, so as to improve the efficiency of laser cleaning large-area paint removal and rust removal, such as waterdrop laser composite laser cleaning machine; On the other hand, it is developing to the common people, that is, low-power miniaturization, replacing angle grinders and improving the cost performance of laser cleaning.

The Water Drop Laser Technology Department has a deep technical accumulation in the application of laser miniaturization, and launched the world's smallest mini laser cleaning head at the beginning of this year. At the same time of miniaturization, there is no discount on the performance accessories of the product, and the highest standards and highest quality are achieved. In response to the pain point of the single function of handheld laser welding, Shuidi Laser has launched an all-in-one machine for cutting, cleaning and welding, and the size of the whole machine is only the size of a suitcase. The total weight of the laser head is only 788g, which is flexible and portable, and is suitable for various complex and narrow working environments. THE CONVERSION BETWEEN CUTTING AND WELDING AND CLEANING CAN BE CARRIED OUT WITHIN 5 SECONDS, THE MAXIMUM OUTPUT POWER OF 2000W CAN BE APPLIED, AND THE CLEANING WIDTH CAN REACH 72MM FOR 160 HOURS OF UNINTERRUPTED WORK. In addition, the recently launched 50W backpack mini laser cleaning machine can be very affordable. The size of the whole machine is only the size of A4 paper, the total weight is only 8kg, and a single finger can be lifted or backpacked. Dr. Kim said, "This was unimaginable a year ago, and it is a revolutionary attempt for a laser cleaning machine to go from to B to C." ”

Water Drop Laser A4 Paper Size, 50W Backpack Type Laser Cleaning Machine

The laser cleaning market has increased to more than 5 billion yuan in 300 years, and the water drops have been IPO in the field of laser cleaning

The biggest competitor in the laser cleaning market is not the competition between peers, but the competition between laser cleaning and traditional cleaning methods. In the future, laser cleaning will develop towards automation and intelligence, which can be combined with other manufacturing equipment to achieve a production line to solve all the problems of a product, and the price of the whole machine will also decrease. With the advancement of science and technology, the improvement of environmental protection requirements and the continuous decline in the price of laser light sources, laser cleaning will eventually dominate the global industrial cleaning market.

Dr. Jin said that in the future, the market will gradually increase, and people's awareness and acceptance of laser cleaning will gradually increase, and the laser cleaning market is expected to increase from the current 5 billion to more than 50 billion yuan in 300 years.

The future development strategy of Shuidi is to take laser cleaning as the pillar foundation, vigorously develop laser cleaning technology, and promote the global market; Laser cleaning, laser welding, laser marking accessories as cash flow products to improve the company's cash flow situation; With laser precision machining as the future layout of products, the formation of a triangular laser tool ecology.

Shuidi is an optimist and believes that the laser cleaning industry must also be a high-quality industry with a blue ocean in the future. Time flies, from the initial team of only a few people to the current seventy or eighty people, the performance of water drop laser has also grown rapidly. In order to adapt to the increasing orders and the trend of the development of standard machines to non-standard machines and single machines to automation lines in the market, it is currently planned to increase R&D and production bases in Dongguan.

"Strive to make the company a technological innovation enterprise focusing on laser cleaning, with sales exceeding 100 million yuan and offices and branches all over the country within two years. Strive to make the water drop laser the first company to be successfully listed in the field of laser cleaning in China. This is not only my personal vision, but also the big goal of every struggling water drop person. ”

Under the background of the national carbon neutrality and carbon peak strategy, green laser cleaning will become an inevitable development trend of industrial cleaning, and the future development prospect of the industry is broad.

Related tags: laser cleaning, water drop laser, laser rust removal, handheld laser rust removal equipment, mold cleaning,