Ultrasonic Cleaning Machine

n 2016 Pacettis Music made a major investment and purchased a 90-gallon ultrasonic cleaner for the interior cleaning of band instruments. We made this decision in order to provide the most advanced method available today. This method not only helps for performance issues, but also helps prolong the life of instruments.

Tradition has been to use acid based solutions to remove the lime and scale deposits. Many repair shops still use a 55-gallon drum of cyanide, muriatic, phosphoric, sulfamic, chromic, or acetic-based solutions. These work by either attacking the organic deposits, or the base metal itself (the internal brass tubing). Most acid based chemicals used in this process work primarily by removing metal, and in doing so etch the surface of these metals in various degrees.

Harsh chemical cleaning removes foreign matter by eating away, or etching, the top layers of the metal, which can be devastating to an instrument and its player, as the metal material that chemicals remove cannot be replaced.

We believe that the best and proper method is one which will remove all unnecessary internal deposits, while also leaving the base metals intact and unchanged molecularly. Ultrasonic cleaning does this safely, regarding the instrument properties, besides being environmentally safe, and cleans instruments more thoroughly than any type of chemical bath being used today.

The unique aspect about this type of cleaning method is that ultrasonic cleaning is performed by using sound waves, which are sent through a liquid medium to microscopically scrub and clean all internal and external surfaces wherever the cleaning solution is present. These sound waves are sent through the liquid medium by a series of transducers, which sends a controlled frequency spectrum of sound waves through the medium liquid in the tank, thus creating waves of compression and expansion of microscopic bubbles. These bubbles expand and implode repeatedly, creating a scrubbing action thousands of times a second which removes all organic materials. This allows more complete cleaning as even in the most complex tubing geometry, ultrasonic cleaning will remove far more contaminates than its chemical counterpart.

Ultrasonic cleaners will also clean plastic/resonate type bodies on clarinets, bass clarinets, bassoons, oboes and all plastic and metal mouthpieces. Buffing and lapping compounds, metal shavings and various other contaminants are all removed via ultrasonic cleaning.

Additional filtration system

We have gone beyond the standard filtration specifications and have installed an additional filtration system. This is done with a 6” basket screen filter followed by a 20” long 10-micron bag filter finishing with a 20” long 5-micron cartridge filter to help keep bath water extra clean.