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5 More Ways to Reduce Manufacturing Labor Costs with Ultrasonic Cleaning

These days, people are one of the costliest parts of any operation, and the more you need them to do, the more expense gets grafted on to the final price of your product. In our previous blog post, we discussed six ways ultrasonic cleaning can reduce your labor costs. To be specific, we covered how you won't have to pay for workers to clean your product by hand (or operate a cleaning machine), or deal with all the hassle of harsh chemicals and the training, equipment and paperwork they require. So what else can this technology do to reduce your costs? Glad you asked! Here are five more ways that ultrasonic cleaning can reduce manufacturing labor costs.

1. You won't have to pay for workers to reapply paint or other coatings.

Removing cutting oil from machined parts or taking dirt and/or chemical contaminants off units you're about to refurb‚ it can all be a real hassle to begin with. But then the product reaches a station where paint, chrome, etc. will be applied and disaster strikes. The coating won't stick because of remaining contamination. Suddenly you're paying for more cleaning, building up more queue time or even slowing a whole line. And that's before you pay someone to reapply a coating. But because ultrasonic cleaning reaches every spot on every surface, you can be certain the entire part is clean. There's no chance of someone missing part of a groove or being distracted and leaving oil clinging to the product.

2 & 3. You won't have to pay for time spent reworking or scrapping parts

Eliminating hand cleaning means less handling, and less handling will also mean fewer opportunities for parts to be damaged. It's difficult to drop, scratch or dent a part while it's lying motionless in a cleaning tank. Moreover, ultrasonic cleaning is an extremely gentle process, so scratches or other damage won't interfere with subsequent steps or create the need to rework a part. If you don't have to rework or scrap, and you don't have to recoat any parts, think of all the time/money you'll save just from eliminating carrying parts back and forth and documenting the problem.

4. You won't have to pay for as much maintenance labor.

You may be using a machine setup instead of having your employees clean by hand. It's often more efficient, but the downside is more maintenance. An ultrasonic cleaning unit will have no moving parts except for a single filtration pump. That lets your maintenance crew concentrate on other tasks.

If you wish, you won't even have to pay for workers to place and remove the items being cleaned.

We now offer customized automation options for our equipment. If a worker places a basket of items to be cleaned in the correct zone, a smart sensor will recognize it and an automated system will move the basket through a pre-programmed cycle. This can include multiple rinse and cleaning baths as you require. Then, when the cycle is finished, the system will place the basket in a retrieval area, allowing it to be moved to the next station. This system ensures each part receives the proper treatment for the proper amount of time, so you won't have to pay an employee to monitor the process, which frees up your skilled workers to perform value added tasks. The bottom line is your bottom line will improve if you can use your workforce more efficiently, and ultrasonic cleaning is the perfect technology to help you do it.