Q. Is there a benefit to filtering the rinse water or the detergent solution in an ultrasonic system? Is it even advisable? If so, can you recommend a filter size (10 um??) when using Alconox detergent? This is for a new bath setup in a new piece of equipment.
A. My short answer would be, it cannot hurt but filtering would likely be of limited assistance.
If you are looking to clean out particulates which may be in the water used for the wash solution, or the detergent liquid concentrate (if you are using liquid), or undissolved particles in the powered (if using a powder detergent) that can certainly be fine. But quality detergents like our products will help sequester/chelate particulates from any of these sources anyway, as extremely limited as they may be. So unless there is significant “dirt” to filter that might overwhelm the capacity of the detergent (recall concentration = capacity), I don’t see a true need.
Critical factors in ultimate part cleanliness are the rest of that (Bath-O-Card) acronym, including how parts are handled before and stored after cleaning. Obviously the final rinse plays a vital role as the quality of that water would be the quality of the final product’s surface. That rinse could possibly have a need to be filtered, depending on claims, and water quality. I would go with a 10 or even 20 um filter. This will essentially remove all visible particulates.
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