Generator cuts size of ultrasonic systems

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 11, 2008

The Primewave generator can precisely control the ramp up of power delivery so it can deliver a surge of power to jump start cavitation in viscous liquids.

Guyson International's Kerry ultrasonic Primewave generator has two boards, each of which can produce up to 1000W of power.

Fewer generators are required for larger ultrasonic tank systems.

The generator can operate in applications involving aqueous, solvent or viscous liquids and can be tailored by the operator to produce the quality of ultrasonic activity required, as dictated by the component complexity or by the substrate.

The Primewave generator can precisely control the ramp up of power delivery so it can deliver a surge of power to jump start cavitation in viscous liquids or it can feed in power incrementally to obviate damage to delicate items such as electronic circuits.

The new Primewave generator is proven to deliver a very robust cavitation.

Cavitation is where millions of miniscule cleaning bubbles are generated by alternating pressure waves created in the wash solution.

These waves create the cavitational bubbles which grow and then implode, producing an extremely high-energy scrubbing action.

Typical low frequencies of around 25kHz produce a larger cavitational bubble that delivers more energy and harsher cleaning action while higher frequencies of around 200kHz produce a smaller cavitational bubble which is better for internal cleaning of blind holes or more delicate cleaning for applications such as electronics.

Primewave has the power to perform with cooler tanks and nondegassed solutions and proves far less susceptible to 'stalling' when baskets of components are loaded into the solution.

Single-frequency generators produce a uniform band of energy equidistant from the transducers, which are generally bonded to the underside of the tank, producing what is called 'standing' wave bands.

This uniform wave of energy is caused by the unvarying frequency or 'note' created and can prove inefficient at cleaning, Primewaving can produce more of a 'harmony'.

It does this partly by increasing the effective width and quantity of the pressure wave bands, so reducing dead zones and hot spots in the tank solutions and producing a more homogenous cleaning action across the entire tank.

Primewave can also be used to power the two separate stages of a two-stage cleaning machine, like the Kerry Microsolve, at different frequencies.

Thus stage one could run 38kHz and stage two at 70kHz for final cleaning or rinsing.

The new generator can be encased in industry standard 19in rack mounted electronic enclosures and the individual internal boards are hot pluggable.

This allows the generator boards to be removed from the enclosure and a replacement board inserted within minutes.

Using the standard 19in rack mounted design also allows the generators to be easily and cost-effectively configured in multiples for use in higher power applications.

The new system also features separate matching board PCB components which are directly linked to the specific tank transducers so that new boards can be easily tuned and do not require tricky matching set-up procedures.

All of these features lead to a minimal downtime for maintenance and provide mission critical or very remote site applications (such as oil rigs) the ability to easily replace a spare board and maintain production without waiting for service call out visits.

In terms of process control the new unit provides tight regulation of output power from less than 20W to the maximum 1kW from each generator.

An easy to read front panel display provides at a glance power monitoring, which can also be easily verified by plugging in an external analyser directly into the front mounted socket.

Direct feedback can also be provided to a LAN or other manufacturing control software via rear-mounted connections.