Industrial ultrasonic cleaning

To use an ultrasonic cleaner, immerse the item to be cleaned in the cleaning solution within the device s tank. There are general-purpose and industrial-strength cleaning solutions as well as specific cleaning solutions for jewelry, oxides, and buffing compound removers. Turn the ultrasonic cleaner on for several minutes, and see if your item is clean. If not, repeat the process and/or try an alternate cleaning method. After an item has been cleaned, rinse as you would with a soap and water wash. 

The jewellery industry also uses ultrasonic cleaning, which buys a sizable fraction of the existing commercial apparatus for cleaning purposes. 

Microstreaming, shock waves, and liquid microjets in the vicinity of solid surfaces lead to very efficient cleaning. This effect has been used in industry for more than forty years. Insoluble layers of inorganic salts, polymers, or liquids can be removed by the ultrasonic cleaning effect. In heterogeneous systems such a clean reactive surface leads to improved dissolution rates of metals in acids and enhanced reaction rates. Chemical reactions giving insoluble products are freed from these mass-transport-limiting layers and react rapidly. 

Anonymous, Multi stage ultrasonic cleaning system for the metal, electronics, aerospace and allied industries. Lubr. Eng. 52, 669-669 (1996)... 

Industrial Pigments and solids can be easily dispersed in paint, inks and resins. Engineering articles are often cleaned and degreased by immersion in ultrasonic baths. Two less widely used applications are in acoustic filtration and metal casting. 

Ultrasounds can be applied to chemical systems by using ultrasonic baths or probes. Although baths are more widely used, probes are more efficient as a result of (a) the lack of uniformity in the transmission of ultrasounds (in baths, only a small fraction of the total liquid volume in the immediate vicinity of the ultrasound source experiences the effects of cavitation) and (b) the decline in power with time, which leads to exhaustion of the energy applied to baths. Both phenomena result in substantially decreased experimental repeatability and reproducibility. For this reason, the use of baths should be restricted to cleaning operations and removal of dissolved gases, their intended applications. A wide variety of commercially available ultrasonic baths exists ranging from laboratory to industrial-scale models. 

The term sonochemistry indicates the use of sound waves to generate chemical and physical effects which can be harnessed in multiple applications (Fig. 1). Although such effects can be obtained at a wide range of frequencies, the word sonochemical is invariably linked to ultrasound, i.e. sound we cannot hear (typically above 20 kHz). Natural phenomena are good sources of both ultrasonic (e.g. animal communication or navigation) and infrasonic waves (such as earthquakes and tidal motion). Ultrasonics is currently of interest to lay people because of medical imaging, metal cleaning, industrial and dental drills and non-destructive material characterisation. 

Crabtree (2009) detailed most of the flow meters used in industrial plants. His classification for selecting measuring technology with respect to process application is reproduced in Table 6.3. All flow meters are suitable for clean liquids except for the Ultrasonic-Doppler instrument and only electromagnetic instruments are unsuitable for low conductivity fluids. Most instruments are suitable for high temperature operation or application under certain conditions except for the ultrasonic instruments. Many flow meters are suitable for gases. Few instruments can be used for open channel flow or pipes that are semifllled with the exception of weirs and flumes. 

Ultrasound has long been used for a wide range of applications [5]. These include inter alia the welding of plastics [6], ultrasonic imaging in medicine [7], the dispersion of pigments and solids [8], cleaning both on an industrial scale [9] and in precision applications such as dentistry [10], and in catalyst manufacture [11]. Sonoelectrochemistry [3,12-15] is concerned with the coupling of power ultrasound to electrochemical systems in order to both achieve and develop new processes and applications. 

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