FAQ

Ultrasonic cleaning is a very efficient method of cleaning hard surfaces and allows us to clean the entire set of external and internal surfaces on most of your critical parts.  This sonification method of cleaning allows us to clean every area and surface of a part, and allows the cleaning chemistry to reach the most difficult spaces of a part whether it is tubular or welded seams and gets the entire part uniformly stripped of debris and oils. This level of cleaning is actually only achievable via ultrasonics.  Ultrasonics are also faster than most other methods of cleaning, which means more when you can get parts from the machine shop to the final assembly more quickly and with more confidence of parts performance. Often times, entire parts assemblies can be cleaned without disassembly and this helps keep parts costs down and finished parts profits and performance on the rise.

Ultrasonic cleaning also delivers consistent results by using batch cleaning processes to allow for all parts in a batch to perform identically because the parts were cleaned in an automated system. Another advantage is that ultrasonic cleaning typically uses aqueous chemistry solutions which means safer cleaning solutions that use non-hazardous chemicals. This helps keep non-volatile residues to the bare minimums, and we routinely test for NVR levels on batches of cleaned parts when test certification requirements call out NVR certifications.

Ultrasonic cleaning is a precision cleaning technology that uses high-frequency sound waves to remove dirt, oil, grease and other contaminants from intricate parts and hard to reach places. Energy is transferred to and stored within micron-sized bubbles (cavitation) that are formed from the alternating pressure waves generated from high-energy transducers. When the super small bubbles contact the parts and hard to reach areas, they implode and release the stored energy generated by the cavitation process. This creates a sort of micro jet or scrubbing action, that dislodges contaminants from the parts.  Dirt, grease, oils, fingerprints and other contaminants become dislodged and then settle to the bottom of the tank. Gloved and garmented technicians move those cleaned parts to final cleaning, and then from there into the inspection, packaging and labeling process in our cleanroom.

There is no set amount of time established for specific cleaning cycles because there are too many variables such as the amount of dirt and contaminants when presented, the size of the part that needs to be cleaned, how clean the part needs to be (requirements), the cleaning solutions used, and the temperature of the tank, etc.  Regardless of the variables, however, the ultrasonic cleaning process takes considerably less time to clean most parts for industrial, automotive, aerospace or medical applications than by using other cleaning methods such as manual soak or “wash and scrub” types of methods.

For example, the cycle time to clean an automotive part might be as little as three minutes. During that short amount of time, the ultrasonic process is removing carbon, grease and any number of other contaminants from that automotive part to a cleanliness level that cannot be easily met by any of the above mentioned manual cleaning methods.

Conversely, cleaning a part for aerospace, medical device or oxygen service part by hand could take hours. We urge you to spend your time making your parts as precise as needed and let us clean them. When you let the cleaning professionals at Ultrasonic Cleaning Company clean them and certify them to meet your required cleanliness specs. They are returned to you cleaned in certified clean packaging and labeled so you can sell them, store them, or install them without sacrificing cleanliness or time. Then you can simply deliver your packaged parts to the end user with the utmost confidence quickly with quality level that is high and reproducible. This all adds up to you saving money and delivering high quality parts to your customers every time.

For large-scale manufacturers the savings starts in the seconds of time saved, plus the cleaning requirements, guidelines and specifications that absolutely have to be met with our clean processing test certifications. Our lab will give you the clean packaged and labeled parts and a in-depth project test report that certifies your parts met the test standards required with applicable data to back up the testing.

Yes, ultrasonic cleaning is ideal for plastic parts, but you need to be very careful. Speak with an experienced firm like us with decades of ultrasonic cleaning expertise to verify the right cleaning chemistries, the best cycle times, and cavitation levels to use. We clean injection molded plastic parts, extruded parts, thermoformed parts, and digitally printed parts. Each type has it’s own nuanced limitations. Just let us know the plastics or polymers involved and we will formulate the process to safely and expertly clean your parts. Then we can package them by lot number, and  or serial number in our ISO LEVEL 5 cleanroom. Send us an email on our CONTACT US form and we’ll get you the right answer, we promise!

This type of passivation process allows us to passivate by removing the free iron from stainless steel which allows a protective thick layer of a dense oxide barrier to be created and deposited on the non-ferrous metal surface, which then prevents additional corrosion.

Passivation utilizes some type of oxidizing chemical process that etches a metal part’s surface. This chemical treatment process helps give corrosion resistant alloys improved corrosion resistance characteristics.  Ultrasonic Cleaning primarily uses passivation oxidizing chemical mixtures featuring Citric Acid. This is an environmentally safe and minimally hazardous acid which works well with most alloys. If needed, we can also passivate using a Nitric Acid chemical as well.