S. Berliner, III's Ultrasonics Page keywords = ultrasonic ultrasound cavitat ultraschall sonde ultrasonique acoustic sonic sound wave ultra liquid processing Ultrasonic Industry Association UIA bubble shock wave clean immersi vapor degreas weld join bond sew seal solder insert stak drill grind machin cut extru form spin sonochemi react accelerat pollut abat toxi waste treat beneficiat remediat particl dispers disrupt homogeniz homogenis emulsif dissol degas foam defoam sparg phaco phaeco lithotript liposuct prophyla history Narda microwave
Updated: 21 Mar 2003, 09:30 ET
{created 21 Mar 2003}
[Ref: This is berliner-ultrasonics.html (URL http://sbiii.com/berliner-ultrasonics.html)]

{It is a near-mirror page to the original one on the author's AT&T WorldNet site
http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/u-s/html}

S. Berliner, III's

Ultrasonics Page

Consultant in Ultrasonic Processing
"changing materials with high-intensity sound"

Technical and Historical Writer, Oral Historian
Popularizer of Science and Technology

S. Berliner, III

Consulting in Ultrasonic Processing

SONOCHEMISTRY * REACTION ACCELERATION * DISRUPTION
HOMOGENIZATION * EMULSIFICATION * POLLUTION ABATEMENT
DISSOLUTION * DEGASSING * FINE PARTICLE DISPERSION
BENEFICIATION OF ORES AND MINERALS
CLEANING OF SURFACES AND POROUS MATERIALS

[See "Keywords (Applications) Index" on Page 3.]

Specializing in brainstorming and devil's disciplery for new products and
reverse engineering and product improvement for existing products.

{"Imagineering"}

[Consultation is on a fee basis -
bona-fide potential clients will be provided
with a fee schedule and curriculum vitae.]

[Please note that I am an independent consultant, NOT a manufacturer;
I WAS Director of Technical Services for Heat Systems-Ultrasonics
(now Misonix) for many years, q.v.]

INDEX to ULTRASONICS

Here is a local search function (for the AT&T WorldNet site):

Enter Keywords: On the main Ultrasonics Page (on the AT&T WorldNet site):

Applications List.

Keywords (Applications) Index - moved from Page 3 on 12 Feb 00.

Probe-type Ultrasonic Processing Equipment.

Brain Storming - bright ideas, pipe dreams, pie-in-the-sky?

On Ultrasonics Page A:

ULTRASONIC PROCESSING

Power vs.Intensity.

AL-1C - "CONDENSED GUIDE TO ULTRASONIC PROCESSING"

(A Layperson's Explanation of a Complex Letterhead)

(A Non-Technical Explanation of a Complicated Letterhead)

Failure Modes in Horns.

Ultrasonic Soldering, Galvanizing, etc..

On Ultrasonics Page 1:

(A Non-Technical Explanation of "Cold Boiling"

TUBULAR HORNS (Radial Radiators).

CARE of TIPS (Radiating Faces).

ULTRASONIC DEGASSING.

On Ultrasonics Page 1A:

AL-4 - AMPLITUDE MEASUREMENT.

Free Bubbling.

Bubble Entrapment.

Extenders.

Call for Contributions for Book.

On Ultrasonics Page 2:

You are invited to visit the ULTRASONIC INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION home page.

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: I am writing a book on "High-Intensity Ultrasonic Technology and Applications" (intended for Marcel Dekker's "Mechanical Engineering Series", edited by Profs. Lynn L. Faulkner and S. Bradford Menkes). This book will focus on the practical application of power (high intensity) ultrasonics, the use of ultrasonic energy to change materials. Contributions are welcome.

THE CAVITATION BUBBLE

[image from University of Washington, Applied Physics Laboratory (Lawrence Crum, Ph.D.)
- bubble diameter approximately 1mm]

ULTRASONICS

[Please note that over the many years since this site was begun (30 May 96), I have abandoned the formal academic usage of
"the author" and "your Webmaster" in favor of the more informal first person singular "I" and "me".]

I shall define "ULTRASONICS" as the application of sound at extremely high intensity and high frequency (normally above human hearing, 20kHz - 20,000 cycles per second - and above) to change materials. The term "MEGASONICS" is now being used to describe frequencies of 1,000,000Hz (1,000kHz) and above.

There are other types of "ULTRASOUND", especially those used for Imaging and Sonar, Characterization of Materials and NDE (Non-Destructive Evaluation), pest-control (supposedly), and so forth; these do NOT change materials and are not covered herein. This series of pages is concerned only with changing materials with ultrasonics.

Such change can clean, homogenize, and accelerate both physical and chemical reactions, among many other things.

That is a key phrase worthy of repetition:

CAVITATION ACCELERATES BOTH PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL REACTIONS.

Using the keywords, here are just some of the many operations that are commonly performed (or facilitated) using ultrasonics:

PARTIAL LIST OF APPLICATIONS OF ULTRASONIC ENERGY ==================================================

(High-intensity applications, only)

BONDING OPERATIONS:
Welding - Joining - Sewing - Sealing - Insertion - Staking - Soldering

MACHINING OPERATIONS:
Drilling - Grinding - Cutting

FORMING, FORGING, and CASTING OPERATIONS:
Extruding - Spinning - Static and Continuous Casting

CHEMICAL and PHYSICAL OPERATIONS:
Sonochemistry - Reacting (physical and chemical) - Accelerating Reactions - Pollution Abatement - Toxic Waste Treatment - Beneficiation of Ores - Remediation - Particle Handling [dispersion, agglomeration, suspension, column packing, sinters, fine ceramics, electronic insulators (resistors, capacitors), 20% volume reduction] - Disruption/Sonolysis - Homogenization - Emulsification - Dissolution - Degassing - Bubble Fusion

CLEANING OPERATIONS:
Surface Cleaning, Preparation, and Treatment - Enhancement of Surfactancy and Detergency - Vapor Degreasing - Turbidity Measurement

MEDICAL/SURGICAL OPERATIONS:
Phaecoemulsification (cataract removal) - Dental Prophylaxis (scaling - tartar removal) - Lithotriptry (removal of liver or gall stones) - Liposuction - Debridement of Wounds - Surgery - Cautery

MEDICAL/THERAPEUTIC OPERATIONS:
"Diathermy" (deep heating) - Inhalation Therapy - Skin Cancer Treatment

AEROSOL OPERATIONS:
Humidification (lace, flour, Legionella) - Spray Drying - Evaporative Cooling - Carburetion and Combustors

MISCELLANEOUS OPERATIONS:
Levitation, Foaming (sparging) and Defoaming - Destructive and Constructive Testing (erosion, cleaning, accelerated corrosion and reaction) - Forensics and Archaeology [potsherds, bone cleaning, selective erosion (serial number restoration)]

PROCESSING

For a complete novice to technology, go first to A POPULARIZED GUIDE TO ULTRASONIC PROCESSING (A Non-Technical Explanation of a Complicated Letterhead) and then to A POPULARIZED GUIDE TO ULTRASONIC CAVITATION (A Non-Technical Explanation of "Cold Boiling").

Those with a smattering of technical knowledge can go to CONDENSED GUIDE TO ULTRASONIC PROCESSING (A Layperson's Explanation of a Complex Letterhead).

A word here about the terms "Ultrasonic Processing" vs. "Ultrasonic Liquid Processing" - the former refers to any method of changing materials using ultrasonic (high-frequency acoustical) energy; the latter refers specifically to methods of changing materials using ultrasonic (high-frequency acoustical) energy in a liquid (a liquid to be processed or the parent liquor used to carry solids to be processed). Some processing, such as drying and levitation, can be accomplished in air or other gaseous media. I have denigrated the latter term ("Ultrasonic Liquid Processing") because, while the most common form of ultrasonic processing, it is too limited in scope and too limiting for the imagination.

CLEANING

[see the Ultrasonic Cleaning page for more detail]

ACTIVE TANKS

Cleaning is most commonly accomplished by immersing objects in a tank to which are fasten transducers that energize the walls or bottom of the tank and generate cavitation in the liquid. Shock waves clean surfaces of parts and assemblies by accelerating detergency of cleaning agents in the bath and by mechanically blasting contaminants off the surfaces.

IMMERSIBLE TRANSDUCERS

An immersible transducer is a radiating device sealed in a housing which can be submerged in a liquid bath to energize the liquid to produce cavitation. An immersible transducer placed in a still tank turns that tank into an ultrasonic cleaner. The immersible transducer is, in effect, a standard tank everted (turned inside out) with the radiating surface on the outside and the transducers on the inside.

Other forms of ultrasonic cleaning include Ultrasonic Vapor Degreasing, Surface Wave Technology for cleaning Printed Circuit Boards, and High-intensity Cleaning of Porous Media, Surfaces for NDE, and Deep Holes.

KEYWORDS (Applications) INDEX

Latest list update: 06 Jul 99
[for hardware (non-applications), see GLOSSARY, * = added {date}]

- - - • - - -

APPLICATION:

abatement				fine particle dispersion

acceleration				fluidization (Br. fluidisation)

agglomeration				food dehydration

agitation				forming

atomization (Br. atomisation)		fractionation

beneficiation				grinding

biological cell disruption		homogenization (Br. homogenisation)

bleaching				insertion

blending				joining

bonding					levitation

catalysis				liquids processing

cavitation				machining

cell disruption, biological		mixing

cleaning				nebulization (Br. nebulisation)

compaction				particle size reduction

curing					pollution abatement

cutting					processing

deagglomeration				reflowing (hot melt adhesive)

deflocculating				scission

degassing				separation

degreasing				size reduction

dehydration				soldering

disaggregation				solids processing

disintegration				solubilization (Br. solubilisation)

dispersion				sonocatalysis

disruption				sonochemistry

dissociation				sonolysis

dissolution				sonoluminescence

drying					staking

emulsification				streaming

enhancement				surface processing (as in cleaning)

erosion					surgical

extraction				suspension

fatigue testing				tissue disruption

filtration enhancement			welding (metals, plastics)

- - - • - - -

MUCH MORE TO FOLLOW

Probe-type Ultrasonic Processing Equipment

Until more illustrative material is added, let the following temporary terminology and visualization guide suffice:

{Note that these devices are also known as "sonoprobes" or "sonotrodes" outside the U. S.
and that they look quite similar to equipment used for ultrasonic welding/bonding -
however, the sensing and control systems are drastically different.}

Typ. U/S System
Typical Ultrasonic Processing System

The energy from the house/lab/plant lines (mains) is transformed from 110/220V AC at 60/50Hz to 20KHz (20,000 cycles per second) and controlled in the GENERATOR (or Power Supply), sent to the CONVERTOR (or Transducer) where it is changed into mechanical energy by the TRANSDUCER crystals (if electrostrictive) or TRANSDUCER Stack of laminated nickel shims (if magnetostrictive) and passed to the HORN (or tool), going through one or more amplification stages (STEPS) and ending up at the TIP (which may be integral to the HORN or removable), the end of which is the RADIATING SURFACE. This face radiates the acoustic energy into the fluid (liquid bath or gaseous sample).

Convertor-Stack-Horn Layout
(electrostrictive shown)

Horn Terminology

Horn Types

STEP HORNS provide maximum amplification (high gain) with high stress at the step and are used primarily in liquid processing. EXPONENTIAL HORNS provide moderate gain with moderate stress. CATENOIDAL HORNS provide low gain with low stress and are used primarily in joining.

{Note also that horns are commonly called "tools" in joining (welding, bonding, etc.) applications.}

For a brilliant (literally and figuratively) dissertation on horn design, see Don Culp's Krell Engineering site, replete with horn performance (FEA) animations.

Cup Horns

CUP HORNS are high-intensity baths used in ultrasonic liquid processing to prevent cross-contamination of samples and tips, in which the sample is placed in a test tube or small beaker placed in a transmission liquid in the cup and irradiated through the base and walls of the vessel.

ULTRASONIC PROCESSING - AL-1C - CONDENSED GUIDE TO ULTRASONIC PROCESSING

(A Layperson's Explanation of a Complex Letterhead) {and Business Card!}

ULTRASONIC PROCESSING: AL-1P, A POPULARIZED GUIDE TO ULTRASONIC PROCESSING

(A Non-Technical Explanation of a Complicated Letterhead)

ULTRASONIC CAVITATION: AL-1V - "A POPULARIZED GUIDE TO ULTRASONIC CAVITATION"

(A Non-Technical Explanation of "Cold Boiling")

Quick Links to Major Ultrasonic Probe Manufacturers

For your convenience (and their benefit), I note there three of the top manufacturers of ultrasonic probes for changing materials (NOT sensing probes); this list is neither exclusive nor exhaustive but represents firms with which I have dealt closely and which I can wholeheartedly recommend.

Brain Storming -

bright ideas, pipe dreams, pie-in-the-sky?

Here is where I will put ideas that I have not tried or which have not been carried forward

or for which I can not find substantiation in my capacious memory or voluminous files:

Grain refinement (grain as in crystalization, NOT food grasses) - I speak to this in a small way under ultrasonic processing of molten metals, but there is much work that might be (and may, indeed, have been) done in this area. Gradual reduction of cavitation in a melt will/should result in far better grain structure, finer dendritic formation, and smaller grain size.

Similarly, coarse ice formation in water can/should be slowed or prevented and microcrystalline or amorphous ice result.

In 1989, the idea of achieving "cold" fusion in the collapsing cavitation bubble popped into my head during the Pons/Fleischman flap but they did not resond to my suggestion; now (2002) it is under serious investigation (see Ultrasonics and Nuclear Fusion).

This is the stuff of dreams - the place of devil's disciplery - seek and ye shall find - ask away; hey, you never know (what pearls of wisdom or insight are trapped under all the decaying grey matter)!

For more information, please contact S. Berliner, III.

Call for Contributions

For the forthcoming book, "High-Intensity Ultrasonic Technology and Applications", on the application of power (high intensity) ultrasonics, the use of ultrasonic energy to change materials, I solicit input and refer you to Continuation Page 1 where details of this request have been moved.

Please note that a far-more detailed explanation of ultrasonic processing, as well as other technical literature, is available at no charge to consultation clients. However, as what I believe to be a public service, I shall be adding more of my monographs on ultrasonics on this site; watch for them in the index (above).

You may wish to visit Continuation Page A, Continuation Page 1, Continuation Page 2, and Continuation Page 3 with more on ultrasonics, as well as the Ultrasonics Cleaning page {in process} and the Ultrasonics Glossary page {also in process}.

Those persons interested in SONOCHEMISTRY might wish to look at
Prof. Kenneth S. Suslick's and Shiga University's Sonochemistry pages.

EEVL logo The author gratefully acknowledges inclusion of these pages
in the EEVL -
[the Enhanced and Evaluated Virtual Library]
The Internet Guide for Engineering, Mathematics and Computing
(formerly the Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library)
a service of the Heriot-Watt University funded by the JISC.

LEGACY

What happens to all this when I DIE or (heaven forfend!) lose interest? See LEGACY.

THUMBS UP!

THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!

S. Berliner, III

To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.

Return to Top of Page

S. Berliner, III's

Ultrasonics Page

Consultant in Ultrasonic Processing "changing materials with high-intensity sound"

S. Berliner, III

Consulting in Ultrasonic Processing

INDEX to ULTRASONICS

You are invited to visit the ULTRASONIC INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION home page.

THE CAVITATION BUBBLE

ULTRASONICS

PROCESSING

CLEANING

ACTIVE TANKS

IMMERSIBLE TRANSDUCERS

KEYWORDS (Applications) INDEX

Probe-type Ultrasonic Processing Equipment

Quick Links to Major Ultrasonic Probe Manufacturers

Brain Storming -

Call for Contributions

LEGACY

THUMBS UP!

Consultant in Ultrasonic Processing
"changing materials with high-intensity sound"