The development and classification of laser cleaning technology were briefly stated. The dry laser cleaning is widely used so far by virtue of its superiority of easy operation and control. The application of dry laser cleaning in different corrosion and coating layer removal of various metal materials was summarized, including the rust and degeneration lays of ZrO2、Cr2O3、Al2O3 on steel surfaces, the high temperature on hot rolled steel surface, the oxygen-enriched alpha case layer on titanium alloy surface, the sulfide scale on alloy steel surface formed by corrosion in H2S atmosphere, the coats of painting on steel, aluminum and titanium alloy surfaces, the Al-Si coating on hot-press-forming (HPF) steel sheet surfaces and the TiAlN coating on titanium alloy blades of aviation compressor. The different laser cleaning parameters, such as wavelength, pulse width, frequency, power, and scanning rate, are required for different cleaning objects. The nanosecond laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm was generally used for dry laser cleaning of metal materials. The surface roughness after cleaning reached to 1 μm and increased with increasing energy input. The removal of rust layers mainly depended on the high temperature ablation. The degeneration layers were peeled off by the thermos-elastic stress action. The painting and the coating layers were cleaned by high temperature ablation gasification, thermal vibration, thermal shock etc. Additionally, the application directions of laser cleaning technology in different industrial fields in China are prospected.