Zenith Mfg. & Chemical Corporation began as a custom ultrasonic cleaning equipment designer and manufacturer, and has been manufacturing cleaning machines and associated components since 1935, and has unequalled experience in the design and manufacturing of these systems. 

Most manufacturer's of ultrasonic cleaning equipment shy away from custom-manufactured equipment, or significantly increase their prices on the equipment.  These manufacturers make the same machines every day.  It is much easier to manufacture standard machines than custom machines for any manufacturer.  There are several reasons for this approach.  Custom systems must be initially designed, and engineered to support the required application. CAD diagrams and parts lists must be created from scratch.  Custom-parts must be ordered and checked for applicability.

Having several decades of experience manufacturing custom ultrasonic cleaners, Zenith has established a highly-efficient system for addressing the complications which exist when manufacturing these machines.  As a result, customers may actually SAVE money when purchasing a custom system over a standard equipment design.  For example, most standard tank sizes of ultrasonic cleaning equipment are rectangular in shape.  However, if your part is long and narrow, a long and narrow tank design with lower ultrasonic power may suit your needs.  This change in equipment design can result in reduced ultrasonic component costs and manufacturing costs.

Custom equipment design can also address applications which are impossible to address using standard ultrasonic cleaning systems.  For example, a recent Zenith customer needed to clean metal rings manufactured of aluminum.  Rings were to be cleaned in a vertical orientation, one in front of another hung on an overhead post, with no space in-between neighboring parts.  To make things even worse, the rings were manufactured of a 1/2" deep u-channel, causing neighboring parts to "nest" into one-another.  When the rings were stacked one in front of another and submerged in a liquid, enormous amounts of liquid was being trapped in the bottom of each ring.  And, since the rings were stacked directly in front of one-another, drying using traditional hot air drying ovens was highly inefficient, and did not meet the 5 minute-per-batch cycle time required by the customer.  The ultrasonic cleaning system also needed to address different ring sizes, from 6" in diameter to 22" in diameter, and the customer needed to ability to add a basket of any ring size at any time on-the-fly.  Finally, the system required an Automated Return Conveyor and Basket Handling System to eliminate the need for operators to return baskets from the Unload Conveyor to the Load Conveyor.

Zenith's primary concern was to address the liquid being captured at the bottom of each ring.  Not only did this liquid make fast drying impossible, it also would cause a large transfer of cleaning fluid into the rinsing tank when baskets were transferred.  This would continuously reduce the liquid level in the ultrasonic cleaning tank, would contaminate the rinse water which prevented zero-residue cleaning results, and significantly increase water consumption as a result.

To address this difficult cleaning application, Zenith started by selecting our MBT Automation System for its ability to oscillate parts independently in each tank.  Next, fixed compressed air-powered Air Blow-off Nozzles were mounted to the front of each tank which would serve to remove excess liquids trapped at the bottom of the rings.  A motorized Return Conveyor System and Pneumatic Parts Handling System was also installed for seamless and reliable basket handling without any operator requirements.

Baskets would enter the processing tanks for liquid processing.  Upon completion of liquid processing, each basket was raised until the bottom of the rings in a particular tank were only a few inches below the Blow-off Nozzles.  When precisely in position, the Blow-off Nozzle would travel down the center of the rings in each tank, evacuating the water which was trapped on the bottom of each ring, for a recipe-determined adjustable time period.  This system completely solved this customer's cleaning requirements.  Per-batch processing times were performed in 5 minutes when operating continuously.

This is just one example out of thousands of custom applications that Zenith has addressed in its history.  If you have any cleaning application which cannot be solved with standard cleaning machines, contact Zenith.  Solving challenging ultrasonic cleaning applications is our specialty.