It’s important to distinguish between “regular cleaning” and “precision cleaning.” True precision cleaning involves removing all contaminants from the surface of the object to be cleaned.

Precision cleaning is vital to the success of industries as varied as aerospace, defense, medical implants, computer tech, and pharmaceutical. In fact, parts in these industries must be cleaned so thoroughly that they can pass microscopic inspection of their surfaces.

If contaminant removal is only partial, this can be expensive, slow down production and have a negative impact on a company’s bottom line and reputation.

Considerations for Precision Cleaning

If you’re going to be having parts precision cleaned, there are certain factors and steps to be taken into consideration.

First, how clean do your parts need to be at the end of the process? What standard are you using, and how will this be determined? In most cases, parts are inspected closely before the cleaning process begins and then they are inspected again according to industry-wide standards and cleanliness levels. You need to determine what is appropriate for your industry and use that as your benchmark.

Once you’ve determined your inspection and cleanliness standards, you’ll need to determine what cleaning strategy you’ll employ.

Precision Cleaning Strategies

When it comes to precision cleaning strategies, there are a wide array of possibilities. These include methods as varied as vapor degreasing, hand cleaning, CO2 snow and mechanical blasting. All the above options have their benefits and drawbacks. For example, some of them require the use of hazardous solvents which create additional workplace safety and environmental considerations. These add further complications and cost to your precision cleaning process. Some processes add intensive time and labor, which can also drive costs up.

To solve the issues caused by intensive labor or hazardous solvents, many precision cleaning operations choose ultrasonic cleaning. For the most intricate jobs requiring a high level of cleaning, ultrasonic cleaning fits the bill, surpassing other methods for most cleaning needs.

What is Ultrasonic Cleaning?

Ultrasonic cleaning works through the generation of high-frequency sound waves through a liquid, using piezoelectric transducers to generate the waves via a diaphragm. When these high-frequency waves strike against the surface of an object, they produce millions of microscopic bubbles which instantaneously collapse. This physical effect is known as “cavitation,” and each collapse causes the snap release of jets of energy. Cavitation produces the power behind ultrasonic cleaning, uniformly “scrubbing” every surface of the object being cleaned, even cleaning down inside blind holes or intricate internal sections

How does ultrasonic cleaning work with precision cleaning?

Once parts have been inspected, they are ready to be sent to an ultrasonic cleaning unit designed for high-end precision cleaning, such as one of the units found in the Omegasonics Pro series.  The parts to be cleaned are placed in a liquid bath along with a detergent formulated specifically for the specific type of application and contaminant addressed in the cleaning.

Once the part to be cleaned is submerged, the ultrasonic cleaning process can begin. The number of ultrasonic cleaning cycles used, length of time in the bath, temperature used, and so on will be determined by the type of contaminant and parts material. Keep in mind that not all materials or applications are suitable for ultrasonic cleaning. We recommend that you get in touch with the ultrasonic cleaning experts using the contact information at the end of this article.

Once the part has been thoroughly cleaned, precision cleaning protocols demand that it also be rinsed in at least one or more water only baths before being quickly and properly dried. For many precision cleaning processes, this involves the use of forced hot air dryers to dry the parts thoroughly. The judicious application of a rinsing agent can help keep water spots from parts, as well as making sure to use distilled water.

Overall, although there are many approaches to successful precision cleaning, ultrasonic cleaning provides a thorough and cost-effective method that works well across industries. Want to know more about how ultrasonic cleaning can transform your precision cleaning operations? Call one of our ultrasonic experts at Omegasonics at 888-989-5560 or email us at Omegasonics@Omegasonics.com. You can also get in touch with us by filling out our online contact form.

Cassettes provide a range of gearing options for your chain to run on. The range of gear ratios allows you to vary your pedaling revolutions per minute in order to achieve optimal efficiency.

Not only can normal grime and grit get in there from road surfaces, but you may also pick up salt or sand used to melt ice and snow from road surfaces. Both of those are murder on the interaction between chain and gears, decreasing your ride efficiency and putting wear on your gear components.

What’s the answer? Experts recommend weekly cleaning to keep your bike in good working order. Once you’re done with a thorough cleaning job, your bike components should shine from cleaning and lubricating. Unfortunately, getting to that point isn’t exactly easy.

Cleaning your cassette by hand

Cleaning your cassette involves first collecting the supplies you’ll need, such as cleaning brushes, degreaser/cleaner designed for bikes, as well as water and rags. You can spray or brush the degreaser onto the cassette, and leave it to drip from the sprockets for a while. Once the degreaser has set on the cassette for a while, use a brush with long bristles to remove any remaining dirt. Wiping a rag on one finger between each sprocket may also be effective.

If the cassette is very dirty, you may need to remove it to clean it thoroughly. To remove your cassette easily, you’ll want a chain whip, a relatively inexpensive tool. Depending on your type of cassette, you’ll need a lockring removal tool to get the cassette off. You can buy both of these tools at most bike shops or online. You’ll also need an adjustable wrench. If you don’t already know how to remove the cassette, we suggest getting someone to show you how or looking up instructions online.

To clean a removed cassette, dump it in a bucket of degreaser to soak it for a while. Use a toothbrush, rag, or even floss to the parts that haven’t quite come clean. If need be, wet any of them down with a little more degreaser and wipe away the grime. Finally, wash the cassette with bike cleaner and rinse it off. Once the cassette is dry, apply a lube on it designed specifically for bikes.

Does that sound like a lot of work? It is. Fortunately, there’s an easier way: ultrasonic cleaning.

What’s ultrasonic cleaning?

Ultrasonic cleaning uses the power of high-frequency sound transmitted through a liquid. When the sound waves strike an object immersed in that liquid, they create millions of tiny bubbles that almost instantly collapse, releasing powerful jets of energy. This energy blasts away at grime and contaminants, scrubbing it away from every surface of an object, even hard-to-reach places.

Cleaning a bike cassette with ultrasonic cleaning

The great thing about ultrasonic cleaning is that it thoroughly cleans hidden, interior areas of parts of the cassette, such as down in between the sprockets. Not only that, but the cavitation cleaning action is completely safe for metal bike parts. For cleaning a bike cassette, you’ll probably want a tabletop ultrasonic cleaner once you remove it. Just place the part to be cleaned in the basket and use a detergent solution appropriate for bike cleaning. If you don’t know which one to use, we recommend speaking with the experts here at Omegasonics, as they can guide you to the right product.

Once you’ve added the detergent to the water bath and heated it using the unit’s heating function, just place the bike cassette in the basket, lower it in, and set the timer. You’ll need to experiment with how much time is required. Once it’s done, remove the part and inspect it. The combination of the detergent and the ultrasonic waves should have done their work in a fraction of the time without all the “elbow grease” you’d normally need. If you want, you can add lube manually, or drain the ultrasonic cleaner and run the cassette through another cycle, but with a lubricant added to the liquid bath instead of the detergent. Check with the experts at Omegasonics to find out which ones are best.

Want to know more about how to clean your whole bike to protect it during winter? Call one of our ultrasonic experts at Omegasonics at 888-989-5560 or email us at Omegasonics@Omegasonics.com. You can also get in touch with us by filling out our online contact form.

The amount of waste generated by the average person has tripled since 1960 in America, which has the highest amount of waste generated per person of any country, at an average of 4.6 pounds per day. In fact, only around 1/10 of solid garbage in the United States is recycled each year. Believe it or not, this statistic has improved over years past, but we still have a long way to go.

Recycling helps alleviate this issue the most, of course, but there are other things that can be done to keep solid objects out of landfills. One of these has to do with what to do with items after a fire or flood. In the past, insurance companies and homeowners would try to restore sentimental items from a fire or flood-damaged home, but would choose to toss the remainder of soot- and mold-covered items in the garbage, meaning that after a major event such as the California wildfires or the floods following a hurricane like Harvey, you would likely see a huge influx of household items entering local landfills. In fact, that’s exactly what happened after Hurricane Harvey.

It’s clear to see that this trend is insupportable in the long run. So, what’s the answer?

Refurbish, not throw away

When household items get damaged in a fire or flooding, it can seem like there is no recourse but to toss them out into the nearest dumpster. Soot or mold damage can seem intractable and impossible to remove. But there is a way to choose to refurbish these items instead of throwing them away. Refurbishing is a choice that keeps items out of landfills and saves both money and time. Cleaning and restoring items by hand might take many hours of hard work, with less than satisfactory results in many cases. Yet there is another way that involves a cutting-edge cleaning technology: ultrasonic cleaning.

Ultrasonic cleaning to the rescue

Ultrasonic cleaning uses the power of high-frequency sound to clean objects. When these sound waves pass through a liquid medium and strike against an object immersed in that liquid, they produce millions of microscopic bubbles. These bubbles collapse almost as soon as they’re formed through a physical phenomenon known as cavitation, releasing tiny but intense jets of energy when they do. These energy bursts dislodge grime and contaminants from every surface of an object, and in combination with a detergent solution, form a powerful cleaning force unlike any other. Not only is ultrasonic cleaning thorough and powerful, but also gentle, which means it can often even clean Grandma’s china without damaging it.

The bottom line: ultrasonic cleaning allows restoration companies to work in tandem with homeowners and insurance companies to clean damaged items after a disaster, restoring them to the condition they were in before the disaster, and sometimes even better. Ultrasonic cleaning creates a win-win scenario for everyone—the homeowner gets their original items back and don’t have to spend time replacing them, the insurance company doesn’t have to write a bigger check to replace all damaged items, and the rest of us will be thankful that the many items will not have to go to landfills, helping keep the earth greener than it was before.

Want to know more about how ultrasonic cleaners can assist you with refurbishing damaged items rather than throwing them away? Call one of our ultrasonic experts at Omegasonics at 888-989-5560 or email us at Omegasonics@Omegasonics.com. You can also get in touch with us by filling out our online contact form.

So, what is ultrasonic cleaning?

First off, what is ultrasonic cleaning and how does it work? Ultrasonic cleaning is made possible by the physical action of high-frequency sound waves traveling through a liquid. These waves, produced by a piezoelectric transducer hooked up to a diaphragm, move through the liquid and produce millions of microscopic bubbles when they strike the surface of an object. This effect is called cavitation. Bubbles created through cavitation are “filled” with space, so there’s nothing to keep them open. So, they collapse almost as fast as they are created, releasing tremendous bursts of vacuum energy in the form of heat and pressure. These jets of energy strike against the object to be cleaned, dislodging contaminants such as rust and grime. The result: fast and effective cleaning.

So, what can an ultrasonic cleaner clean?

It’s probably easier to consider what an ultrasonic cleaner can’t clean. After all, ultrasonic cleaning is used across a wide range of industries to clean a huge variety of materials. Ultrasonic cleaning is used to clean everything from medical implants to aerospace parts to carburetors to handguns. It shows its versatility when cleaning household items damaged by flood or smoke damage, for example. Even though ultrasonic cleaning can be used on the toughest industrial parts, it can also clean equally well grandmother’s best china set after a fire has blackened it.

There are only two main categories of items which can’t be cleaned by ultrasonic cleaning: items which shouldn’t be submerged in water because the liquid will damage them and items which can’t be easily dried. That’s it.

So that means everything from Grandma’s china to snowmobile carburetors can be cleaned with ultrasonic cleaners. Even electronic circuit boards can be cleaned. If they’re not connected to electricity at the time, and they’re properly dried out later on, it’s perfectly safe, and they won’t be harmed.

And when an ultrasonic cleaner is combined with a forced air drying cabinet, then you’ve got a potential cleaning assembly line operation going.

Bottom line: if it’s a surface contaminant, it can probably be removed from the object with the combination of ultrasonic waves and a detergent specially formulated for that type of grime.

The list of contaminants that ultrasonic cleaning can’t remove is about as short as the list of objects it can’t clean. Ultrasonic cleaning can remove just about any type of dirt, rust, oil, grime, carbon and more.

So, if you’re looking to clean any type of industrial or commercial part, especially if it’s something that involves a lot of elbow grease and time,  consider investing in an ultrasonic cleaner.

But don’t just take our word for it here. Got a question about what ultrasonic cleaners can clean and want to talk to someone about it? Call one of our ultrasonic experts at Omegasonics at 888-989-5560 or email us at Omegasonics@Omegasonics.com. You can also get in touch with us by filling out our online contact form.

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.

Testing Cavitation

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 – 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.