6 Ways to Reduce Manufacturing Labor Costs with Ultrasonic Cleaning

Time is money‚ is a cliche©, so allow us to share a different take on that old chestnut. Nothing is more expensive than the time of your workforce. The more you need your workers to do, the more expense gets grafted on the final cost of your product. The good news is that ultrasonic cleaning technology can reduce the amount of labor used to make your product, reducing costs and increasing efficiency. In fact, one customer, Ushers Machine and Tool, cut costs and increased their production by 20%using one of our ultrasonic cleaners. There are so many ways ultrasonic cleaning can reduce your labor costs that we'll have to take this in two doses. Let's take a look at the first few things you can stop paying for if you replace other methods with an ultrasonic cleaner.

1. You won't have to pay for scrubbing, brushing or other applications of elbow grease.

Ensuring a part is truly free of contaminants can take an enormous amount of time, especially if it has a complex shape. Each nook, cranny or groove has to be scoured somehow, with precise attention to detail. Handling scrubbing, spraying, inspecting, scrubbing again‚ it definitely adds up. With ultrasonic cleaning, microscopic bubbles constantly form and collapse on every surface of the item being cleaned. As the bubbles collapse, the liquid slams into the dirt or other contaminants and scrubs it off the surface. No one will need to turn the part over and over looking for that one smear of cutting oil they may have missed; the bubbles from ultrasonic cavitation will form everywhere and remove everything that doesn't belong. And depending on the cleaning application, the process often takes as little as five to seven minutes.

2 & 3. You won't have to pay workers to break down parts or put them back together

There are spots in some components that can't be reached by a scrub brush or sprayer, including spaces that are simply too small to work a tool into. But the bubbles formed by ultrasonic cavitation will form anywhere liquid reaches. Unless the sections you need to clean are watertight, the part can be left intact and simply submerged in the cleaning tank. Although for best results we do recommend disassembling as much as possible.

4 & 5. You won't have to pay workers to undergo chemical safety training or don, handle or maintain safety gear.

Most cleaning methods in an industrial setting will require the use of strong solvents or other chemicals, but ultrasonic cleaning needs none of that. For most applications, the cleaning medium is simply water and mild detergent. Not only will your employees not need to protect themselves from harsh chemicals, they won't have to spend time applying them during the cleaning process.

6. You won't have to pay workers for the labor surrounding hazardous chemical disposal.

We'll deal with the savings related to getting rid of noxious solvents in a future post, but while we're focused on labor costs, consider this: You won't have to pay for employees to handle the solvents, dispose of them or keep records related to them. And that's all before any savings from the disposal fees themselves. The water in the tank can be used through multiple cleanings, and when it's time to dispose of it, it can be treated just like dishwater, depending on the cleaning application and your local municipality requirements.