How Ultrasonic Cleaners Work

Besides the clothes you wear, jewellery adds character and style to your person. However, you subject the piece to elements such as the wind, dust, sunshine, heat, and even sweat and dirt on your skin. Surface dirt is easy to clean through scrubbing and wiping. Unfortunately, dirt in hard-to-reach areas is impossible to clean with just routine maintenance methods. Furthermore, there are jewellery pieces that are so delicate that cleaning them by hand is not recommended.

To clean dirt-encrusted or delicate jewellery, you need an ultrasonic cleaner. This is a device that uses ultrasound and a special cleaning solution to get rid of encrusted dirt, dust, oil, pigments, rust, and other contaminants. Aside from cleaning jewellery, ultrasonic cleaners are also used to sanitise lenses, old coins, electronic equipment, watches, pens, and old trinkets.

The jewellery is lowered into the cleaner's chamber which contains a warm aqueous or organic cleaning solution. This cleaning solution contains essential compounds that make ultrasonic cleaning more effective. For example, it may contain a wetting agent to break surface tension. It may also have detergents and other components that have a large influence on the cleaning process.

Thereafter, a built-in or lowered transducer emits high frequency sound waves that cannot be detected by the human ear. This action creates compression waves that "shred" the liquid apart, which leaves behind vacuum bubbles. These bubbles burst with enormous energy, sometimes reaching up to 50,000 pounds per square inch! However, since the bubbles are so small, they only burst with enough force to knock off the encrusted dirt. If the frequency is increased, smaller bubbles are produced, further cleaning the deepest parts of the jewellery, even microscopic holes, cracks, and recesses.