Why Ultrasonic Cleaners Are Essential for the Automotive Industry

When the automotive industry uses traditional cleaning methods to clean oily and greasy parts, it’s time-consuming and expensive. Ultrasonic cleaners deliver better cleaning performance in less time and at a low operating cost. Once an automotive manufacturing facility or parts shop switches to ultrasonic cleaners, they quickly become indispensable because the benefits are so extensive. To get the full advantages provided by ultrasonic cleaners, the cleaning systems have to be configured correctly. An experienced ultrasonic cleaner manufacturer can help design a system for specific cleaning applications and ensure that the ultrasonic cleaners deliver the expected performance.

The Advantages and Benefits of Using Ultrasonic Cleaners

Automotive ultrasonic cleaners clean quickly and effectively without the use of toxic chemicals or aggressive solvents. Manual brushing or scrubbing are not required, either before or after the cleaning process. The operator can simply place the parts to be cleaned into the cleaning solution, set a timer and come back later to collect the completely clean parts. The advantages of the ultrasonic cleaning method include the following:

• Rapid cleaning. Cleaning of parts that are only lightly contaminated can take as little as ten minutes. Heavily contaminated parts can take slightly longer.
• Reduced manpower costs. No manual cleaning is required and the cleaning process does not need monitoring. Employees can carry out other work while cleaning is taking place.
• Reduced operating costs. A major cost of traditional cleaning methods is the cost of chemicals and solvents. Ultrasonic cleaning works with plain water but can sometimes work faster with a mild detergent.
• Increased workplace safety. Ultrasonic cleaning is completely safe and workers are not exposed to harmful chemicals or their vapors. When manual scraping and scouring is no longer required, puncture wounds or cuts are eliminated.
• Reduced environmental impact. Toxic chemicals used for soaking and cleaning in traditional cleaning methods can harm the environment, even with neutralization and disposal according to regulations. Ultrasonic cleaning is environmentally benign.

The advantages of using ultrasonic cleaning translate into lower overall costs, greater employee satisfaction, improved output and higher productivity. The benefits of switching to automotive ultrasonic cleaners make this technology essential for the automotive industry.

Matching the Ultrasonic Cleaner to the Cleaning Application

While a general-purpose ultrasonic cleaner can clean a lot of different types of parts, matching the cleaner to the cleaning application improves cleaning performance and avoids potential damage to part surfaces. Low frequency cleaners deliver powerful cleaning action that can clean quickly but can result in pitting for parts with soft surfaces. An experienced automotive ultrasonic cleaner manufacturer can recommend a cleaner with the characteristics best suited to clean certain parts.

For example, many automotive parts are made of steel and they often have very hard surfaces. They can be heavily contaminated with carbon deposits, oily residues and grease. Such parts are hard to clean, but configuring the ultrasonic cleaner correctly gives excellent cleaning performance. An ultrasonic cleaner at the proper frequency will provide enough cleaning power to remove deposits quickly. Typically, in these applications a low frequency cleaner with a 40 kHz ultrasonic transducer will be used.  Also adding a mild detergent to the cleaning solution will help dissolve oily residue. Heating the cleaning solution will soften grease and speed up cleaning. Combining these special features in a cleaner adapted to the task helps obtain the best cleaning performance possible.

With extensive experience in ultrasonic technology, Kaijo’s in-house experts can help customers select the automotive ultrasonic cleaners they need and make sure the cleaning performance is optimal. Kaijo can analyze the cleaning tasks, make recommendations as to what cleaners are best suited, and deliver a corresponding model from their complete line of ultrasonic cleaners.