Ultrasonic cleaning with floating transducers
OwnerLarry M. McNeerinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of cleaning a surface by means of ultrasonic waves propagated through a liquid medium, having particular utility in the decontamination of the external or internal surfaces of nuclear fuel casks. For external surface cleaning, a hollow cylinder, open at both ends, is placed over the cask and sealed to the base plate. A buoyant ring, to which ultrasonic transducers are attached, is placed within the cylinder, encircling the cask. The cylinder is then filled with a cleaning solution and the ring floats from the bottom to the top of the cask as power is supplied to the transducers to produce cavitation of the solution. The cylinder is then drained and the ultrasonic cleaning is preferably continued as the ring is lowered with the level of the solution.
Claims10
A method of cleaning a surface comprising:
- a. forming an enclosed, substantially liquid-tight chamber within which the surface to be cleaned is fully exposed;
- b. attaching at least one ultrasonic transducer to floatation means capable of supporting said transducer in a liquid medium;
- c. positioning said floatation means and transducer within said chamber at a vertical level at least as low as the lowest point on, and with the wave-emitting surface of said transducers facing toward said surface to be cleaned;
- d. filling said chamber with a liquid medium from the lowest to the highest point to be cleaned on said surface, whereby said floatation means and transducer float from said lowest to said highest point;
- e. applying power to said transducer during said filling sufficient to cause cavitation of said liquid medium, thereby cleaning said surface;
- and
- f. draining said liquid medium from said chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.