As technology advances, more and more industries are opting to use ultrasonic cleaners to remove unwanted residue and harmful contaminants from their equipment. Advances in technology have made ultrasonic cleaning safer, more efficient and more affordable every year. Ultrasonic cleaners have numerous advantages over hand-cleaning, machine washing and other cleaning methods.

What is industrial ultrasonic cleaning?

Industrial ultrasonic cleaning is a process that uses ultrasound (most commonly in wavelengths ranging from 20-40kHZ, in either single or dual frequencies depending on the specific application) to agitate a fluid field with or without detergent to clean solid materials]. Early uses of ultrasonic cleaning were limited to small metal parts and jewelry, though contemporary innovations in the field have expanded its applications considerably. In industrial settings, ultrasonic cleaning is now most often used for fabricated metal parts, especially those used in complex machinery and mechanical assemblies exposed to chemical contaminants and debris. This is because ultrasonic cleaning, when applied in industrial settings and at an industrial scale, often proves more effective, faster, and safer for human workers, equipment, and the environment than other non-ultrasonic cleaning methods.

Let’s look at some of the benefits of ultrasonic cleaning!

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT

Ultrasonic cleaners have proved to be more eco-friendly than their traditional counterparts. Until recently, the use of heavy chemicals was widespread in many industries. These cleansers often contain harmful compounds, such as esters and chlorinated hydrocarbons, which have a disastrous impact on the environment. The vapors from these chemicals are also highly toxic and often require workers to wear protective masks to insulate them from the dangerous fumes. An ultrasonic cleaner uses water-soluble detergents, rather than harsh chemicals, to break up residue.

WORKER SAFETY

Not only does the ultrasonic cleaner prevent workers from inhaling harmful chemical fumes, it also helps workers avoid sharp instruments that may contain biological contaminants. In previous years, workers would manually clean certain instruments which could puncture the skin and expose the technician to a potential biohazard. With an ultrasonic cleaner, the worker merely needs to place the instrument in the tank, add water and detergent, and turn on the machine.

GENTLE CLEANING

For certain items, hand-cleaning and harsh chemicals could damage. The cavitation effect produced by an ultrasonic cleaner allows the mixture of water and detergent to reach into narrow crevices and remove unwanted residue, while keeping the piece intact.

RANGE OF APPLICATIONS

Users of ultrasonic cleaners range from federal law enforcement agencies to healthcare facilities. Even home users have been found to clean their jewelry and collectible coins with ultrasonic cleaners to remove dust, grime and skin oils. Automotive shops clean their parts and tools with an ultrasonic cleaner to take away used lubricants, metal burrs and other residue that can keep a car from working at its best. Police, sheriffs and federal agents clean their weapons, handcuffs and other equipment with ultrasonic cleaners. Healthcare facilities resort to cleaning their medical equipment using Ultrasonic cleaning machines. 

The sizes of these machines can vary. Some cleaners use specialized detergents to remove specific contaminants, while other applications only require tap water and a minimal amount of detergent or degreaser.

Currently, there is also a significant ongoing study into the advantages of industrial ultrasonic cleaning of textiles. Ultrasonic cleaning has the potential to clean fabrics more effectively while causing far less compounding damage to the structural integrity of fibers and depositing less chemical surfactant residue, even in delicate materials. This has proven to be especially useful in limited applications of ultrasonic cleaning methods to historical textiles.

Researchers suggest that the potential advantages of industrial ultrasonic cleaning of textiles are immense. This is because appropriate applications of industrial ultrasonic cleaning methods could reduce energy consumption, increase textile performance, and decrease ongoing textile laundering and repair/replacement costs to firms. Moreover, they find that the most significant barriers to effective commercial ultrasonic cleaning can be easily mitigated in industrial spaces by exposing fabric to the ultrasonic field in a flat format. 

EFFICIENCY

Ultrasonic cleaner users have also found that these machines are very efficient, much more so than hand-cleaning or other machine-based methods. The ultrasonic cleaner lowers the use of three key resources:

• Water

Ultrasonic cleaners use less water than most hand-cleaning methods or conventional equipment-washing machines.

• Electricity

Ultrasonic cleaners are more energy-efficient than many equipment-washing machines.

• Time

Ultrasonic cleaners work much more quickly and effectively than hand-cleaning or washing machines.

Ultrasonic cleaners can speed up the cleaning process for tools and instruments in a wide array of industries. These machines also frequently produce much cleaner results than those found by the use of heavy solvents and toxic degreasers. 

The importance of working with high-quality industrial ultrasonic cleaning service providers

As we have discussed, the advantages of industrial ultrasonic cleaning are achievable across a vast array of industries, ranging from the automotive and aerospace industries, to the manufacturing industry, to healthcare, agriculture, and bioscientific spaces. 

Yet those advantages are only achievable when working in partnership with highly qualified ultrasonic cleaning specialists. This is because inexperienced or otherwise unqualified ultrasonic cleaning service providers may not know the best settings for the use of their equipment in different industrial spaces.

Moreover, there is an increasingly pervasive issue of misrepresentation in industrial ultrasonic cleaning services and machinery, as it is difficult for customers to distinguish between ultrasonic frequency (or frequencies) being used. This problem, referred to as fake variable frequency ultrasonic cleaning, can dramatically reduce the efficacy of ultrasonic cleaning services. The only way to avoid this problem is to work with credible industrial ultrasonic cleaning service providers, who are well known for their depth of experience, engineering expertise, ingenuity, and high-quality workmanship.