ROI on Using Ultrasonic Cleaners
September 23, 2020
When a business manager considers whether to buy a piece of equipment, an important factor for the decision is the return on investment (ROI). For ultrasonic cleaners, the manager compares the cost of buying the equipment with the anticipated savings. If the savings over two to three years are equal to or greater than the cost of the ultrasonic cleaner, the manager is likely to proceed with the purchase. In that case, the ROI means that the cost of the new purchase is returned within two to three years.
For many ultrasonic cleaner applications, the ROI is much less than two to three years because the savings in labor and supplies are substantial. The analysis becomes even more favorable for the purchase of the cleaners when the expected lifespan of the equipment is taken into account. After the two to three years are up and the business has paid back the cost of the purchase from its savings, the ultrasonic cleaners will continue to generate these savings, increasing business profitability.
Beyond such financial considerations, the performance of ultrasonic cleaners is superior to most traditional cleaning methods. This means that in addition to saving money, product quality and customer satisfaction may increase, underlining that the decision to use ultrasonic cleaning is the right one for many businesses.
Ultrasonic Cleaners Reduce Labor Costs
While traditional cleaning methods such as soaking in chemicals and high-pressure washing can soften and remove some contamination, manual scraping and scrubbing is required for many cleaning applications. The work is difficult and time-consuming, especially if the parts to be cleaned have difficult-to-access areas.
Ultrasonic cleaning systems remove contaminants down to the original part surface without requiring manual cleaning. Operators can place the parts in the cleaning tank, set a timer and remove the clean parts after the set time. Supervision of the cleaning process is not necessary so employees can complete other tasks while the ultrasonic cleaning works.
Depending on the sizes of the cleaning tank and the parts, many parts can be cleaned at once rather than just one at a time as for manual cleaning. While the exact labor savings will vary with the application, they are usually substantial resulting in an excellent ROI.
Reduced or Eliminated Chemical Use With Ultrasonic Cleaning
Traditional cleaning methods use corrosive chemicals and powerful solvents to soften, dissolve and eat away contaminating residue on the surfaces of parts to be cleaned. The chemicals are expensive and their safe storage, handling and disposal costs time and money. As environmental and safety regulations tighten, additional investments in this area will likely be required.
Ultrasonic cleaning works by immersing the parts to be cleaned in plain water. For heavy contamination of parts with grease or oily residue, the cleaning bath can be heated and a mild detergent can be added to speed up the cleaning action. No special handling or disposal is required and the cleaning method is completely safe. Substantial costs for the purchase of chemicals and their use are eliminated, further improving the ROI.
More Rapid and Complete Cleaning Results in More Throughput and Improved Quality
Ultrasonic cleaners remove contamination more quickly and completely than traditional cleaning methods. Where manual cleaning of parts can take hours, an ultrasonic cleaning bath can usually clean the same parts in ten to twenty minutes. The faster cleaning reduces waiting times in production and the improved cleaning performance results in higher quality output. Production lines can handle more products and product quality is better. More output from the same production line improves the ROI.
Kaijo is ideally positioned to help businesses implement a transition to ultrasonic cleaning with an excellent ROI. The company can recommend the type of ultrasonic cleaner needed for an application and can supply a suitable system from its extensive line of ultrasonic equipment. In this way, Kaijo can help many businesses improve their bottom line and the overall performance of their facilities.