If you work around ultrasonic cleaning tanks you have probably heard a tank “squeal.”  If you’ve never heard this, (1) consider yourself lucky and (2) be aware that a “squeal” is not the normal hissing sound associated with an operating ultrasonic tank but, rather, an extremely high amplitude sound at an audible frequency that can …

Note – Before we start, there is a nomenclature conundrum when it comes to the term “ultrasonic transducer.”  Through convention, transducer elements, the individual devices that produce ultrasonic vibrations (much like an individual radio speaker), are commonly called “transducers.”  A number of transducer elements working in parallel constitute a transducer array but may be called …

After God knows how many years of looking at that one image of a cavitation bubble presented endlessly with different color variations etc. to “freshen it up” there has emerged some exciting new footage of actual cavitation bubble implosion!  Now, as a start, I don’t think these bubbles, at least the first ones, are the …

In 2010, a patent was issued to Kaijo Corporation (US 7,726,325) for a method to efficiently and rapidly “degas” liquids.  In short, the process involves passing a liquid through a restriction such as the narrowing of a pipe at a sufficient velocity that rarefication downstream from the restriction (ala Bernoulli’s principle) creates negative pressure to draw …

This discussion is a bit anecdotal in nature because my attempts to demonstrate the effects I describe in the following in the laboratory have been less than conclusive.  But, the fact that I have seen them occur on several occasions over a period of more than 50 years gives it a degree of credence.  By this time the …

I have talked about cavitation extensively in previous blogs.  But what I have neglected to address through an omission on my part is the fact that all cavitation does not produce the effect needed to enhance cleaning – namely, the catastrophic collapse of the cavitation bubble in implosion.  Before reading further, please take a minute …

In the blog The Effect of Temperature on Ultrasonics, temperature was identified as a major variable in ultrasonic cleaning due to the impact it has on many physical properties of liquids.  This blog addresses the effect that chemistry has on the physical properties of liquids and the resulting effect on ultrasonics.  Most ultrasonic cleaning utilizes chemistry …