Abstract: As a new cleaning technology, laser cleaning technology has the characteristics of high efficiency,environmental protection and energy saving. It has been successfully used in the fields of tire mold cleaning, aircraft body paint removal, automobile parts remanufacture and so on. However, the method can not only remove the dirt layer on the surface of the material, but also have a certain impact on the structural characteristics of the surface of the material. Based on this, firstly, the changes of surface roughness, hardness, wear resistance and corrosion resistance of metal materials caused by laser cleaning were summarized and analyzed. Then, the reasons for the change of the surface characteristics of the metal material were analyzed from the two aspects that cause the surface temperature of the metal material to rise and the element to change on the surface of the substrate. Finally, on this basis, the challenges and future research directions of laser cleaning technology were summarized and prospected.