mmmmm, poor you!

I have only used stainless steel ones.

That looks like a right mess!

Presumably cellulose thinners? If white spirit did that, that is some dodgy plastic.

You should not use Volatiles in an Ultra Sonic Cleaner!

Freon and Chlorothene of course are now banned.

This leaves only Aqueous types of cleaner, The one we have found best is a US made product called 'MIcro' and as it is only a 2% solution is very economical.

There are other people who can supply Aqueous solutions like Farnell and RS but nowhere near as good as Micro.

It is used by te US Atomic weapons manufacturers to clean the items they make!

If you want to use a volatile then us White Spirit in its own container in the Ultra Sonic bath so that it will not contaminate the fluid. Do this in a small plastic or metal container for screws or gears etc.

Clive

The point I was trying to make about Volatiles is that we had an Ultrasonic that burnt through the bottom of the stainless steel tank and vapourized all the Freon, luckily it was over a weekend and nobody was in the building. ( Thats why the ho;le in the Ozone layer got bigger)

The heater thermostat had malfunctioned, maybe because the operator failed to keep the fluid levels up!

When we arrived on the Mon. morning all the bits and pieces around the Ultrasonic were covered in a white deposit. Not sure if it was dangerous or not.

Since then I have been ultra cautious about the ultrasonics but now we are with an aqueous solution I do not worry too much apart from boiling dry.

I will find out the UK supplier of Micro and post the detail.

Clive

Hi There,

I have used a cleaning agent called "decon 75" for cleaning lab equipment in work and this is described as being suitable for cleaning in the nuclear industry, and perhaps this is another version of the "Micro" product clive mentions.

Neil

Most Ultrasonics have heaters fitted under the tank and if there is any burn through then if you are using volatiles it will vapourize and ignite.

I would not want to be around if one did!

Micro as such is an Ammonia based liquid with inhibitors and is biodegradable which is quite important to a lot of people.

Prior to placing parts in the Micro we wash them in White spirit and then wash in detergent (Washing up Liq.) hot rinse and into the Ultrasonic machine for an average of about 3 to 4 minutes.

Obviously we scrub the parts with an old tooth brush and get rid of as much detritus and oil and grease as we can.

Upon completion we again hot water rinse and use an air line to remove as much water as possible and then use a heat gun to dry the parts.

You can put glass and plastic into the Micro, the only thing that does suffer is the shielding that is sometimes put on the inside of plastic to stop RF breakthrough. Glass lenses and prisms I only allow max. 1 minute or just 30sec. in the ultrasonic.

PC boards can be put in to remove moisture residue if the board has been subject to water ingress. Blow off as much as you can and then warm gently for a while before testing/use.

Clive