Ultrasonic Wire Cleaning - Hielscher Ultrasonics0 pages

ULTRASONIC CLEANING OF WIRE, ROD AND STRIP
Manufacturing wire and cable, rods, tapes, tubes and fasteners requires lubrication.
Before further processing, such as galvanizing, extrusion or welding, the lubricant
residues need to be cleaned off. Hielscher Ultrasonics offers a unique ultrasonic
cleaning process for efficient inline cleaning.
The following article examines the economic costs and benefits of the use of an
ultrasonic wire or tape cleaning system (referred as wire, although this applies to tape and
profiles as well). In the last years, major technology improvements made the use of
ultrasound more reasonable for the cleaning of wires. The cavitation of today’s highpower ultrasonic processors serves to remove grease, oil, and other contaminations
from the surface of the wire. Reduced investment costs and improved performance of
these ultrasonic wire cleaning systems made them not only competitive but superior to
conventional cleaning methods as for example acid baths.
Ultrasonic Cleaning
Ultrasonic cleaning is an environmentally friendly alternative for the cleaning of
continuous materials, such as wire and cable, tape or tubes. The effect of the cavitation
generated by the ultrasonic power removes lubrication residues like oil or grease, soaps,
stearates or dust. In addition, the pollution particles are dispersed into the cleaning
liquid. By that, a new adhesion to the material to be cleaned is avoided and the particles
are flushed away.
Ultrasound is well known for its capabilities in the cleaning of metal parts. There are two
working principles. Firstly, there is an oscillation of the cleaning liquid itself that causes a
movement of the liquid in relation to the parts to be cleaned. Secondly – and more
important – is the cavitation caused by high amplitudes.
Cleaning is often a bottleneck in the wire production line. Many companies still clean
coils of wire in acid baths. This is a non-continuous batch process – consuming time and
chemicals.
Cleaning the wire in line with the other production steps leads to continuous production.
Furthermore, speeding up the cleaning often enables the company to make use of the
capacity of the rest of the line.
High-Power Ultrasonic Processors
For the industrial wire cleaning powerful ultrasonic processors are needed that can run
continuously. High power in combination with high efficiency makes high cleaning
speeds possible at reasonable costs. Furthermore, these devices should be run-dry
protected to ensure that the systems will not be destroyed by a simple error such as a
pump failure or the missing maintenance of the liquid tanks. This protection is
accomplished by holding the amplitude constant and by this preventing it from rising
above critical limits as a consequence of the missing load.
Such high-power ultrasonic processors have been developed and installed in industrial
wire cleaning systems by our company. Modules of one, two, and four kilowatts
continuous sonic power mark the edge in ultrasonic technology today. They meet
industrial requirements in performance, efficiency and reliability.

Hielscher Ultrasonics GmbH www.hielscher.com; info@hielscher.com Tel.: +49 (0)3328/437-3 Fax: +49 (0)3328/437-444