How to Choose a Precision Guideway Cleaning Machine
Release time:
2025-08-13
With economic development and industrial transformation and upgrading, the workpieces cleaned by ultrasonic cleaning machines have become increasingly complex and precise, and enterprises have higher requirements for workpiece cleanliness. Therefore, considering cleaning effectiveness and economy, how to correctly select the frequency and power of ultrasonic cleaning machines is crucial.
Ultrasonic cleaning technology is a cleaning method that uses high-frequency ultrasonic waves to clean objects. Its working principle is to impact the object with high-frequency ultrasonic waves, breaking down impurities such as dirt, oil stains, water marks, and resin on the object's surface into small pieces, which are then washed away.
With economic development and industrial transformation and upgrading, the workpieces cleaned by ultrasonic cleaning machines have become increasingly complex and precise, and enterprises have higher requirements for workpiece cleanliness. Therefore, considering cleaning effectiveness and economy, how to correctly select the frequency and power of ultrasonic cleaning machines is crucial.
Concepts of Ultrasonic Power and Frequency
In precision ultrasonic cleaning, if the cleaning effect is unsatisfactory after using a certain frequency of ultrasound, and the impurity particles to be removed from the workpiece are large, the issue may lie in insufficient ultrasonic power. Generally, increasing the ultrasonic power can solve this problem.
However, if the impurity particles to be removed from the workpiece are extremely small, no matter how much the power is increased, the cleaning requirements cannot be met. The reason is: when liquid flows over the workpiece surface, a viscous film is formed. At low frequencies, this viscous film is generally thick, and small particles are embedded in it. No matter how high the ultrasonic power (intensity) is, cavitation bubbles cannot come into contact with the small particles, making it impossible to completely remove them. When the ultrasonic frequency increases, the thickness of the viscous film decreases, and the cavitation bubbles generated by ultrasound can contact the small particles and peel them off the workpiece surface.
Therefore, low-frequency ultrasound is effective in removing large particle impurities but performs poorly in removing small particle impurities. In contrast, high-frequency ultrasound is particularly effective for removing small particle impurities.
Frequency Selection for Ultrasonic Cleaning Machines
Generally, cleaning in industries such as hardware, machinery, automotive and motorcycle, and compressors mostly uses cleaning machines with a frequency of 28KHz. Optical and optoelectronic cleaning, circuit board cleaning, etc., often use a frequency of 40KHz. High-frequency ultrasonic cleaning machines are suitable for fine cleaning of computer and microelectronic components. Megahertz ultrasonic cleaning is applicable to the cleaning of integrated circuit chips, silicon wafers, and thin films, capable of removing micron and submicron-level contaminants without any damage to the cleaned items.
For some precision cleaning applications (such as liquid crystals, semiconductors, etc.), traditional frequencies cannot meet the cleaning requirements and may even cause damage to workpieces. A typical example is military electronic products; the industry has explicitly prohibited the use of ultrasonic cleaning machines with traditional frequencies (20~30KHz). This problem has now been solved by using high-frequency cleaning machines (80KHz or higher, some even reaching 200K or 400K).
Why can high-frequency cleaning avoid damage to workpieces? As we all know, the basic principle of ultrasonic cleaning is based on the cavitation effect of liquids. In fact, the intensity of the cavitation effect is directly related to frequency: the higher the frequency, the smaller the cavitation bubbles, and the weaker the cavitation intensity, with a significant degree of weakening. For example, if the cavitation intensity at 25KHz is taken as 1, the cavitation intensity at 40KHz is 1/8, and at 80KHz, it drops to 0.02. Therefore, if the frequency is selected correctly, the problem of ultrasonic damage to workpieces will not exist.
It can be seen that the ultrasonic cavitation threshold is closely related to the ultrasonic frequency: the higher the frequency, the higher the cavitation threshold. In other words, low frequencies make cavitation easier to occur. At low frequencies, the compression and rarefaction of the liquid have longer time intervals, allowing bubbles to grow to a larger size before collapsing, increasing cavitation intensity, which is beneficial for cleaning.
Thus, low-frequency ultrasonic cleaning is suitable for large component surfaces or occasions where contaminants are strongly bonded to the cleaned surface. However, it is prone to corroding the surface of cleaned items, unsuitable for components with high surface finish, and generates high cavitation noise. A frequency of around 40KHz, under the same sound intensity, produces more cavitation bubbles than 20KHz, with stronger penetration. It is suitable for cleaning workpieces with complex surface shapes or blind holes, with lower cavitation noise but weaker cavitation intensity, making it ideal for occasions where contaminants have weak bonding to the cleaned surface.
Power Selection for Ultrasonic Cleaning Machines
When sound intensity increases, the ratio of the maximum radius to the initial radius of cavitation bubbles increases, enhancing cavitation intensity. That is, higher sound intensity leads to more intense cavitation, which is beneficial for ultrasonic cleaning. However, higher ultrasonic power is not always better. Excessively high sound intensity generates a large number of useless bubbles, increasing scattering attenuation and forming an acoustic barrier. At the same time, increased sound intensity also enhances nonlinear attenuation, which weakens the cleaning effect in areas far from the sound source. Therefore, the effectiveness of ultrasonic cleaning is not necessarily proportional to the applied power and working time. Sometimes, using low power for a long time fails to remove dirt, but when the power reaches a certain level, the dirt can be removed quickly.
If the ultrasonic power is too high, the cavitation intensity in the liquid increases significantly, which may cause pitting on precision parts and increase water spot corrosion. If the vibration plate surface is already damaged by cavitation, high power will exacerbate cavitation corrosion at the bottom, reducing equipment lifespan and causing unnecessary losses. Additionally, cavitation on the vibration plate at the bottom of the cleaning tank will be severe, shortening the tank's lifespan. However, selecting insufficient ultrasonic power, which results in failure to remove dirt even after a long time, is also undesirable.
In industrial applications of conventional ultrasonic cleaning, standard ultrasonic cleaning machines range from 100W to 3000W. The power of the ultrasonic cleaning machine is determined by the size of the ultrasonic cleaning tank, considering the cleaning cycle and the size of the workpiece. Given that the technology for measuring sound intensity in reverberant fields is still immature, the current design uses power per unit area. Generally, the output power density of a standard ultrasonic cleaning machine is mostly selected to be around 0.3~0.6 watts per square centimeter, though this is only for conventional cases. Pulsed focused ultrasonic cleaning can use higher power densities. Therefore, the best approach is to conduct experiments first to obtain appropriate parameter configurations and configure the ultrasonic power according to actual usage conditions, which is beneficial for practical applications.
Key words:
Large single tank ultrasonic cleaning machine | Slider cleaning equipment | Precision guide rail cleaning equipment | Rotary spray cleaning machine
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