WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2022
With sustainability and safety becoming major talking points in the abrasive blasting industry, laser technology from companies such as laser equipment manufacturer Laser Photonics Corporation hope to create a greener environment and protect worker health.
The industrial laser products reportedly aim to provide a modern alternative to sand and abrasive blasting industries, as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidelines place parameters around use based on air quality, noise pollution ad waste production, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration describes “significant risk” to worker exposure and health to blasting materials.
About the Company
LPC creates high-tech laser systems for laser marking, laser cutting, laser engraving, and other material processing applications in the automotive, aerospace, industrial, defense, electronic, semiconductor, flat panel and medical industries.
Specifically, its CleanTech Laser Cleaning Systems reportedly offer an advantage over traditional cleaning methods like sandblasting, dry ice blasting, and other abrasive blasting techniques because the laser cleaning systems are eco-friendly, energy-efficient and complete the job in half the time.
According to the company, this method removes paint, contaminants, rust and residues with a high-energy laser beam which leaves the substrate untouched. CleanTech is available in a variety of sizes and strengths for many applications.
At the end of November, LPC announced that its presentation at the FABTECH 2022 trade show yielded “significant potential sales orders.” The company reportedly received 200 leads, with about 15%of them being new customers from Fortune 500, the U.S. Government and large global companies covering diverse industries, such as oil and gas, military, railways, aerospace and defense OEMs, and more.
“This was the first trade show where we were able to showcase our new CleanTech Laser systems to current and potential customers and partners…and their level of interest was phenomenal,” Wayne Tupuloa, CEO of LPC, commented.
Tupuloa adds that they estimate this expanded LPC’s pipeline for 2023 by $8 million to $10 million for initial unit evaluation sales, with hopes of leading to follow-up sales.
Displayed products reportedly included high-powered 3000-watt lasers for roughing, 300-watt lasers for conditioning and the recently introduced MARLIN, a marine corrosion mitigating system targeted at the global marine vessel market.
LPC also introduced its new CleanTech Laser Blaster Cabinet, a Class I laser safety system aimed at displacing hazardous, conventional sandblasting techniques. The product is fully compliant with EPA and OSHA requirements, equipped with a dust and fume collector system.
Recent Orders
In October, LPC completed an order of its CleanTech Handheld LPC-1000CTH to the U.S. Navy, where it will be utilized at the Kingsbay Trident Re-fit Facility. According to Tupuola, eight systems have been sold for a total of $750,000 to the Fairchild and Hurburt Airforce Bases, the Army depot and supply core, the Navy Special Warfare Group, SOCOM and the Department of Veteran Affairs over the past 18 months.
“These initial units are being used to develop standard operating procedures and processes, and once developed, we expect to see follow-on purchases from each buyer,” he said at the time.
“In addition, we are continually working to penetrate new parts of the U.S. government, including the DoD, to demonstrate the safety, hazard, efficiency and financial benefits of using our technology to drive sales to new customers within the organizations.”
More recently, at the beginning of this month, the company received an order from Baltimore Gas and Electric in Maryland to provide a handheld laser cleaning system for paint removal from various tanks. For this, the CleanTech 2000 JobSite system was selected due to its “cost-effective, efficient and safe method of industrial cleaning, rust removal, paint removal and surface preparation.”
Tagged categories: Environmental Controls; Health & Safety; Health and safety; Laser cleaning; Laser Photonics; Surface preparation; Surface Preparation; Surface preparation equipment; Sustainability; Tools & Equipment
