Ultrasonic Machining – A New Use for Ultrasonics?

Over the years, there have been several anecdotal references to otherwise unexplained changes in the properties of surfaces exposed to ultrasonic energy in a liquid.  In some cases, it would make sense that the change was due to increased cleanliness.  In others, however, the benefit of cleanliness alone would seem questionable.  One incident in particular …

Is it Viscosity or is it Surface Tension??

Viscosity and surface tension are properties that are often intuitively linked to one another.  Because these properties are of primary importance in cleaning it will be worth the while to understand them a bit better. Surface tension is the property of a liquid that exists at the interface of the liquid with another media (usually …

De-Ionized Water – Things I Did(n’t) Know – Part 2

Since DI water quality is critical to many cleaning processes, it is important to understand its behavior.  In too many cases, the quest for numbers results in high costs in the use of DI water.  In short, delivering super-high resistivity water does not always have a significant impact on the resistivity of de-ionized water in the ultimate application. …

De-Ionized Water – Things I Did(n’t) Know – Part 1

De-ionized water is commonly used in both industrial and precision cleaning systems, primarily for rinsing.  De-ionized water is a little like the speed of light or absolute zero in that you can never quite TOTALLY remove all the ions from the water (although we can get close) and, once a certain level of de-ionization is achieved, it …