Video: Why is it impossible to hold something under water?

Perhaps this is something you have tried before: to hold something under water in an ultrasonic bath. Give it a try to hold a wafer, contact lens or cleaning indicator using a pair of tweezers in an ultrasonic bath. You probably won’t succeed! Why not? Check out the movie below. Explanation: between the levers of ...

Cleaning microscope objectives

Microscope objectives are often used in very close vicinity of samples. It is therefore not uncommon to find traces of material on an objective. Cleaning an objective often involves special cleaning liquids, swabs, alcohol and/or pressurised air. However, this process is quite cumbersome since careful handling is required to avoid scratches on the lenses. Ultrasonic ...

Preventing cross-contamination during ultrasonic cleaning

During the cleaning of medical instruments such as tweezers, dental drills and tattoo needles, special attention needs to be given to prevent contamination from one instrument to end up on the next instrument. This risk on so-called cross-contamination exists especially during ultrasonic cleaning, since contamination that has been removed from an object remains inside the ...

How to keep windows clean for 5 years

How to keep windows clean for 5 years
Windows are continuously exposed to the elements, and contamination such as salts, bird excretions and soot from exhaust gases are often recurring contaminations. In applications such as windows on a tall building or lenses of cameras monitoring highway traffic, it is not always possible to manually clean such a window. But how do you keep ...

Special Issue of Ultrasonics Sonochemistry on ‘Cleaning with bubbles’

Scientific magazine Ultrasonics Sonochemistry published a special edition on the topic ‘Cleaning with bubbles’. We are proud to have been Guest Editor for this special issue, which can now be found online at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/13504177/29. We have asked several renowned scientists with different expertises to answer the question on how bubbles exactly can clean: is it ...

Case study: cleaning a 3D printed model

One of the popular 3D printing techniques is DLP (Digital Light Projection), in which a resin is being cured layer by layer using UV projections. This is a very accurate printing technology and results in detailed three-dimensional objects. However, after printing it is required to remove the uncured resin. This can be a challenging task ...

Microfluidic chips cleaning

Microfluidic systems are becoming increasingly popular both in research and in industry. They are excellently suitable for performing analysis and reactions with only small volumes of liquid. For example, one drop of blood is enough to detect the presence of certain diseases. Microfluidic chips can also be extended to include optical components, sensors, gas chromatographs, ...

Chemical processes in the BuBble bag

Chemical processes in the BuBble bag
BuBble bags can be used for other purposes than just cleaning. In labs, ultrasonic baths are often used for chemical and biochemical processes. Since these processes rely on cavitation (partly because of the OH radicals that are generated), you can enhance the processes by using our BuBble bags, since these bags generated more cavitation bubbles. ...

BuBble bag vs. glass beaker – which one gives better cleaning?

Our BuBble bags enhance the formation of bubbles in an ultrasonic bath and should therefore clean better thane.g. glass or plastic beakers that people often use in ultrasonic baths. But how much better is the cleaning with BuBble bag really? In order to measure that, we used so-called cleaning indicators, which visually represent the the ...

Ultrasonic cleaning and microbubbles

The working mechanism behind ultrasonic cleaning is microbubbles.  Microbubbles are generated by the ultrasonic sound waves (frequencies >20 KHz), however it is not the ultrasound that is doing the cleaning, but the collapse of these bubbles (cavitation). These tiny bubbles collapse with huge velocity on a very small scale and are therefore ideally suited for ...