What Is Ultrasonic Cleaning? Ultrasonic cleaning is a process whereby delicate items are cleaned using a combination of ultrasonic waves and a bath of cleaning solution. The process can be used in a wide number of commercial, industrial and medical settings.
What is it used for? Ultrasonic cleaning is used in situations where the items to be cleaned would otherwise risk damage from other conventional cleaning processes - examples include watchmakers, jewellers, optical lens manufacturers, as well as a number of medical and industrial applications. The process can be used on materials with a variety of shapes and sizes, and the process is also effective in cleaning within cracks, crevices and other holes that would otherwise be impossible or impractical to clean. Also due to the nature of its action, the disassembly of component parts is not always required, speeding up the cleaning process. The process is suitable for cleaning most hard, non absorbent materials that aren't chemically attacked by the solvent used - for example metals and plastics. Ultrasonic cleaning is effective in removing many different contaminants, including dust, dirt, grease, oil, blood and polishing compounds, amongst others.
How does it work? Items to be cleaned are placed in a bath of cleaning solution. Depending on the application the cleaning solution can simply be ordinary tap water, however another solvent is usually added in order to aid the cleaning process. Where water is used, it is normally used in conjunction with a surfactant to lower the surface tension of the water, making the cleaning process more efficient. The cleaning solution is then bombarded with very high frequency sound waves (beyond the range of human hearing - hence the term ultrasonic). This can be achieved by either lowering an ultrasonic transducer made from a piezoelectric material directly into the cleaning solution, or by having the ultrasonic transducer built into the ultrasonic cleaning machine itself. The sound waves cause compression waves within the cleaning solution and microscopic cavitation bubbles appear within the solution. These microscopic vacuum bubbles implode with incredible force, agitating the contaminants and weakening their bond to the item being cleaned. These implosions have only a tiny area of effect, and therefore do not damage to the item being cleaned, but are effective in removing dirt and contaminants from the item. The size of the cavitation bubbles can be controlled with incredible accuracy, as the size of the cavitation bubbles depend on the frequency of ultrasonic wave being passed