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What is Cavitation Exactly?

November 6th, 2010 by Frank Pedeflous

In the world of ultrasonic cleaning, the word used most often is “cavitation”. Generally speaking, most people simply know this to be, “the bubbles in an ultrasonic tank that clean the contaminants off a dirty industrial part”.

Well how are cavitation bubbles formed? A transducer produces sound waves that multiply liquid. The liquid is subjected to negative and positive pressure points and form shock waves. One of the results of these shock waves are implosions, which are used to assist ultrasonic cleaning.

There are two simple ways to properly test your Omegasonics machine to make sure it is cavitating properly. These tests are also unique and interesting ways to show clients or friends what ultrasonic cleaning really does!

1) Glass Slide Test

Take the frosted side of a glass slide and wet it with water. Draw an X with a pencil from one corner to another. Now, gently place the glass into a fresh batch of cleaning solution and turn your Omegasonics machine on. If your machine is cavitating properly, the “X” will disappear immediately and everything will be gone in 10 seconds.

2) The Foil Test

In the foil test, the cavitation bubbles creates tiny pebbling patterns and holes in the foil.

Take a sheet sized piece of regular aluminum foil (not heavy duty or freezer duty) and.place the foil in a vertical position into the ultrasonic tank.

Hold it steady for 60 seconds, remove the foil and gently shake off any water droplets. The foil surfaces will have holes shot throughout the sheet and will be evenly covered with a tiny pebbling effect (cavitation bubbles imploding on the foil’s surface). It’s a cool way to show how sound waves can clean so well.

You will notice a foil test with an Omegasonic machine has a nice density of pinholes (cavitation) with a very uniform and even distribution of ultrasonic cleaning power.

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3 Quick Tips to Get More Performance From Your Ultrasonic System

October 15th, 2010 by Frank Pedeflous

Ultrasonic cleaning is already the worldwide leader in improving safety, labor costs, and profits in an industrial cleaning setting.  There are ways to further optimize your Omegasonics machine for maximum cleaning efficiency. Here are a few no hassle practices you can use today!

1) Temperature: As temperature increases, so do cativation bubbles. The best temperature for ultrasonic cleaning is around 65% of the boiling point of the solution for water 137 degrees F. As temperature increases, cativation is more evenly distributed but less powerful. We recommend utilizing temperature between 130 and 180 degrees F. However, some cleaning soaps work better at higher temperatures and others at lower temperatures. To see how to optimize your Omegasonics machine at the right temperature for your specific project, contact one of our application specialists.

2) Frequency: Lower frequency = higher strength cavitation with larger imploding bubbles. Conversely, high frequency = less powerful cavitation occurs with smaller implosions. Low frequency is good for large parts with very coarse contaminants. High frequency is best optimized for finer particles in hard to reach areas. The best overall cleaning frequency for a great majority of applications is 40 kHz.

3) Change the Water: Replacing the water inside your ultrasonic cleaning machine is and important part of improved performance. However, dirty water doesn’t necessarily mean poor cleaning. Some contamination actually improves cavitation within the ultrasonic bath because it reduces the surface tension of the cleaning solution. Only when the bath is over saturated with contaminants or the original pH of the solution has been altered dramatically, does the bath need to be changed or more soap added. A good filtration system does extend the life of the soap, though it isn’t so good for soap sales by the supplier.

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Eliminate 70% of Your Cleaning Costs Next Year

October 6th, 2010 by Frank Pedeflous

Cleaning industrial parts has traditionally demanded a variety of requirements. This mostly includes costly and time intensive manual labor using chemical solutions that are dangerous for both workers and the environment. Cleaning by hand also runs the risk of not effectively reaching those nooks and crannies. In today’s sensitive economy it is no longer a monetarily wise decision to waste time and labor trying to clean tedious parts in an industrial setting.

To make this all very simple, ask yourself, “When you come home at night, do you prefer to wash your dishes with soap by hand, or effortlessly place them all in your dish washer while catching the last inning of the game?

Applying this everyday mentality to your business and using an Omegasonics cleaning system, you can easily eliminate 50% of your cleaning costs for next year!
For example, cleaning a carburetor by hand (a very labor intensive operation) requires a substantial scrubbing time of 1.5 hours. It then calls for supplemental cleaning using expensive and hazardous solvents. Using an Omegasonics parts washer, three carburetors can be cleaned in just 17 minutes (including loading and unloading times).

The increases in ultrasonic cleaning solvent and energy output will be more than offset by the immense savings in both labor costs and waste discarding.  An Omegasonics system can save you up to $1,000 or more per month, paying for itself in less than a year. Also, don’t forget to cancel your order for hazardous cleaning chemicals; you won’t be needing those any more.

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Cleaner Parts in Less Time With No Solvents

July 3rd, 2010 by Frank Pedeflous

Ultrasonics avoids harmful solvents

Today begins my official life as a blogger. Since my company makes ultrasonic cleaning systems, and I am at heart a cut-to-the chase type of person, here we go.

Our clients buy ultrasonic cleaning units because they produce cleaner parts in less time, with less labor, and without the use of solvents. This, generally, all adds up to lower costs for our clients. Regardless of the industry we are dealing with or the exact cleaning application, several if not all of these advantages pertain.

Our sales message can get somewhat redundant because in every industry, companies ranging from machine shops to disaster restoration companies to gun shops to musical instrument shops basically do the same thing. They have traditionally used a petroleum based solvent to degrease an oily, dirty part by soaking it and then scrubbing it by hand with some type of a brush. Pretty tedious and not very consistent. Imagine doing this for 8 hours a day-do you think the quality of your cleaning at 4 o’clock in the afternoon is as good as 9am when you are fresh. Hardly.

With an ultrasonic cleaning unit, the machine does the work consistently throughout the day in some type of water based cleaning soap. The labor required is basically loading a basket with the parts to be cleaned and dropping it into the tank and turning on the ultrasound. Scrubbing of parts ranges from almost nothing to not at all.

So that’s it in a nutshell. If you have a tedious parts cleaning predicament, ultrasound is very likely an answer for you.

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