ultrasonic cleaner

Cleanliness and hygiene are desirable or even indispensable in all imaginable areas of life. Supermarkets, drugstores, pharmacies and electronics retailers offer an almost infinite variety of cleaning products, disinfectants and various more or less advanced equipment to use these funds as effectively and without too much effort. But while the majority of cleaners and equipment is best suited for the bathroom, kitchen, the rest of the home and general body care and satisfies its task satisfactorily, the right equipment is often lacking for many very special applications. A shadowy existence in the jungle of the cleaning equipment, if completely unjustified, lead the ultrasonic cleaner , These are electrical devices that uniquely remove soiling from a variety of objects with the help of sound-induced pressure fluctuations. This is done in a water bath, which can be added to support the effect with various cleaning agents. ultrasonic cleaner is available for small items in private use, as well as on a much larger scale for industrial use. The application possibilities are very diverse and there are suitable models for every need.

Functional principle of ultrasonic cleaners

The devices are first filled with water, which may be additionally mixed with cleaning agents. When selecting cleaning agents, it is essential to ensure that they are adapted to the object to be cleaned. The device generates ultrasound for cleaning. These are sound waves with a frequency of, depending on the definition, at least 16 or 18 kHz up to 1 MHz. The frequencies that can be used for ultrasonic cleaning are around 20 to 40 kHz. Sound waves are pressure waves that transport energy. The sound waves now act on the water in the device by squeezing it together and pulling it apart. This depends on whether a wave belly or wave node is occurring at any point. When pulling apart the water molecules, the pressure drops so much that the water evaporates abruptly. This evaporation is necessary to balance the pressure. Gases have a much larger volume than liquids with the same amount of molecules and can therefore compensate for the resulting pressure differences. Once the pressure rises again, the large volume of water vapor bubbles is no longer necessary and the bubbles collapse again. This alternation of suddenly arising and collapsing bubbles occurs in the entire fluid in a change corresponding to the frequency. Since the pressure changes occur at higher frequencies in a smaller space and correspondingly faster, finer gas bubbles, which allow a more effective cleaning. Ultimately, the cleansing effect is based on the cavitation bubbles literally blasting away dirt from objects to be cleaned. There are more devices that are offered as a cheaper alternative under the name vibration bath. These have nothing to do with a real one ultrasonic cleaner and have, if anything, only a slight cleaning effect.

What is at one ultrasonic cleaner to pay attention?

As mentioned earlier, the higher the frequency of the sound, the better the device is. In addition, it is of great importance that the cleaning fluid to the object to be cleaned, the type of pollution and the used ultrasonic cleaner is selected accordingly. The manufacturers often make a recommendation for this, which should be followed, as long as you do not have sufficient experience. This prevents damage to the objects to be cleaned or to the device itself. It is also important that the cleaning fluid heats up considerably. This is done on the one hand by the high amount of energy that is released to the liquid or the device simply has a heat function. The heating of the cleaning liquid requires above all that the cleaning effect is increased and accelerated. A disadvantage, however, is that on the one hand not every object to be cleaned can withstand these high temperatures and some cleaning agents are decomposed if the temperatures are too high. Of these, most disinfectants are affected. It is also important not to select a device that is too small. Although even small models perform their task perfectly satisfactory, but you will increasingly want to clean more and larger things with the device. Therefore, it makes sense from the beginning to choose a larger model, which offers significantly more options for little more money. In addition, it must be noted that the ultrasound not only causes extreme pressure fluctuations in the cleaning fluid, but can also stress the objects to be cleaned. Therefore, it is important to select a model that generates the right sound frequencies for the intended use. This ensures the best that the ultrasound attacks the dirt, but not the object to be cleaned.

What things can be cleaned with an ultrasonic cleaner?

As practical as an ultrasonic cleaner is, so much care should be taken when using it. First, the cleaning fluids are often very aggressive and can cause harm to the skin if used carelessly. On the other hand, one should carefully consider which items can be cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaner and which are not. Two of the most classic items that can be cleaned very well with ultrasonic cleaners are glasses and dentures. In addition, DVD’s and CD’s, glassware, medical equipment or manicure and pedicure accessories can be cleaned. In the case of the latter, the effect of disinfection is additionally to be emphasized. Since bacteria are dependent on having an intact cell wall and this is either torn by the pressure fluctuations or is blown up by, created in the cells, cavitation bubbles, bacteria and fungi are absolutely certainly killed. It is also possible to clean ceramics, jewelry, gems and natural minerals in an ultrasonic cleaner. Here, however, must be paid very carefully to which items for ultrasonic cleaning in question and which are not. Pure metal jewelry can be safely cleaned with ultrasound. However, if gems are processed in the jewelry, the suitability depends on the stone. Massive gemstones, which occur as uniform crystals in nature and are ground from such to gemstones, are easy to clean. Examples of such stones are the usual transparent stones such as diamonds, sapphires, topaz, aquamarine, peridot or various quartz varieties. Brittle stones, on the other hand, should only be cleaned with ultrasound, if at all, with great care. Such stones include opals, labradorite, as well as many other mostly opaque stones that are made up of a mixture of minerals, have no uniform crystal structure, or have inherently cracks in their interior. The same applies to natural minerals and precious stones from a corresponding collection and ceramics, in which it is crucial whether the glaze is flawless. All these objects have brittleness as a common feature. As a result, already at the beginning of the cleaning the liquid can penetrate into microscopic cracks of the stone. Now, when the ultrasonic cleaner is turned on, the cavitation bubbles are also formed inside the stones and break them into the smallest fragments.