Ultrasonics in Industry

This paper presents a brief description of various successful industrial applications that have been made of ultrasonics. The applications are divided into three broad groups: low, medium, and high power. In the low-power group are included reduction of friction, inspection, remote control, flaw detection, and other types of gauging and nondestructive testing. The medium-power group includes ultrasonic machining, soldering, medical therapy, liquid level indicators, and similar types of depth gauges and instruments. The high-power group includes precision cleaning, emulsification, dispersion of metals, metallurgical, bacteriological, and other chemical and physical processing applications. It is only natural that the lowand medium-power applications received first commercial acceptance, while the high-power applications advanced more slowly awaiting the development of low-cost high-power ultrasonic transducers and low-cost ultrasonic power supplies. These latter requirements are at present reasonably well met, which means that great increases in industrial high-power ultrasonic applications can be expected in the immediate future.