r/oddlysatisfying • u/Dependent-Play-7970 • 2d ago

Average laser cleaning

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917

u/Dio_Yuji 2d ago

Where does the rust go? Does it evaporate? Or does the laser turn it back into unrusted iron? Someone explain this to a guy who was bad at science in school

773

u/littlebipper 2d ago

A quick google search told me it is turned into a gas through either vaporization or sublimation so yeah it essentially evaporates the solid debris materials.

188

u/XandaPanda42 2d ago

I just thought the heat was enough to break the iron oxide back into iron and oxygen, like regular smithing would do.

Vaporized iron dust is probably not a good thing to breathe in.

58

u/littlebipper 2d ago

I couldn’t tell you the intricacies of it since I just did a quick curiosity search to see what it did to the debris materials. However I’m sure looking into vaporization and sublimation would yield some results to your curiosities.

27

u/XandaPanda42 2d ago

Apparently yeah it's melting/sublimation. At least according to the manufacturers.

Couldn't find anything written by someone who wasn't actively trying to sell me a laser cleaning machine, so might take it with a grain of salt. A few others said it's to do with the expansion of rust.

As the laser heats a point up, that point expands causing fractures in the surrounding material, breaking and peeling it off. Because the now removed chunks are a lot smaller, it takes less energy to heat them up so they can get to the required temperature to break the bonded oxygen free, leaving the metal behind.

It's different with things like dirt, oils and grease, where their boiling point is significantly lower than iron.

8

u/etanail 2d ago

When metal is smelted (for example, from iron sands), the coal is oxidized, turning into CO. This gas is an imperfect oxide, and it is more active than iron, and becomes a reducing agent, that is, it takes oxygen away from it. Aluminum in thermite does the same thing. It's not the temperature that does it, it's the coal. And at high temperatures, pure iron, on the contrary, oxidizes, that is, rusts.

As for cracks, you'd better read this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_ablation

3

u/Reddit-runner 2d ago

I just thought the heat was enough to break the iron oxide back into iron

It can. But that would not stick it back on the solid surface. At least not a meaningful amount.

2

u/[deleted] 21h ago

Who doesn't want rusty lungs???

1

u/XandaPanda42 19h ago

Now that you mention it, I do have low iron... hmm.

21

u/Mooshipoo 2d ago

So we’re…..breathing the rust?

13

u/ImaginationApart9639 2d ago

And waking up?

4

u/Mooshipoo 2d ago

We’re all gonna die but some are the Usain Bolt of dying

2

u/Elena__Deathbringer 2d ago

Isn't that unsafe to breathe?

1

u/uraniumcovid 2d ago

as long as it isn’t ipad smoke

-5

u/CumStayneBlayne 2d ago

so yeah it essentially evaporates

It doesn't because solids don't evaporate. Sublimation =/= evaporation.

15

u/littlebipper 2d ago

That’s why I said essentially evaporates, to simplify it like the original commenter asked somebody to.