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Ultrasonic Cleaning vs Other Cleaning Methods

Why choose ultrasonic cleaning over other methods of parts cleaning? After all, doesn’t ultrasonic cleaning seem overly-elaborate and technical? What can an ultrasonic cleaner accomplish that can’t be accomplished with a rag and a cleaning solution? There is a clear, easy answer to this question, and that answer is the reason why ultrasonic cleaning has become such a popular cleaning choice in industrial contexts.

Suppose for a moment that you run an electroplating business. Your business involves coating metals with a thin layer of other metals. You want your plating process to be precise and accurate; customers return sloppy work and cancel contracts with companies that can’t demonstrate an ability to produce high-quality electroplated products. Here’s the difficulty with electroplating. In order for the process to be effective, there can be no contaminants present on the surface of the objects that are intended to be plated. The problem with this is that in many cases, objects that are intended to be plated are exposed to a large variety of contaminants during the course of their production. They can become contaminated by oils and dirt on levels that couldn’t necessarily be detected by the naked eye. Contamination at this level is very difficult to remove by hand, and some solvents aren’t capable of dissolving or dislodging these kinds of contaminants. But in order for the plating process to be successful, the contaminants have to go somehow. How can this be done?

As you’ve probably guessed, one popular answer is ultrasonic cleaning. The process is capable of dislodging even the smallest contaminants from the surface of objects by subjecting objects to cavitation induced by ultrasound. Objects that emerge from ultrasonic cleaning are virtually contaminant free, ready to be subjected to electroplating or any other necessary industrial process.