Laser ablation cleaning apparatus. An optical box containing mirrors for
specially directing laser light, such as repeated pulsed CO.sub.2 laser,
is mounted in a hand-held cleaning head or in a custom work head. The
hand-held cleaning head can be used to safely direct laser energy to a
surface to be cleaned; the laser beam ablates from the surface coatings,
corrosion, and the like without harming the substrate. The custom work
head is removably mountable upon the iron core stack of a conventional
commercial electric generator, and features an optics box carriage that is
selectively movable along the axis of the stack to direct a laser beam
into the slots of the stack for cleaning.
