Jwellery industry
Like any woman needs to employ a whole range of different assets in order to maintain her beauty, the perfect look of your jewellery also depends significantly on how you care about it. Whereas our personal fight for beauty consists of many operations, fortunately with jewellery you can limit the work to cleaning only.
Professional cleaning is an absolute must. Do it twice a year if you want your jewellery to look its best. However, fine jewellery is a refined and demanding 'lady'. Pay attention to it. Jewellery will never excuse neglect.
An excellent way to keep your jewellery in great condition at home is ultrasonic cleaning. This special unit uses ultrasound waves with frequency higher than frequency audible to the human ear. Let's not get into technical details of how it works but how to use it. A standard household ultrasound cleaner consists of a metal tank with a removable basket. All you need is to
Fill the tank with water or cleaning solution (optionally). Put your jewellery in the basket and take it out in a few minutes clean and sparkling.
However, not all ultrasound cleaners remove tarnish from metals. For that purpose they come equipped with separate tanks for dipping of jewellery into tarnish-removing solution.
Some gemstones are not ‘ultrasound-friendly’. Among the materials that can be damaged by ultrasound cleaning are:
- Pearl
- Mother-of-pearl
- Opal
- Topaz
- Turquoise
- Emerald
- Peridot
Avoid ultrasound cleaning with any gemstones containing flaws. Always follow all the operating instructions for your cleaning machine. Here are some general precautions to consider when using an ultrasound cleaner:
- Never turn on your cleaner when it does not have water in it
- Use only special ultrasonic cleansing solution formulated for cleaning in your machine. Using other cleansers can seriously damage your machine
- Never leave the machine running unattended or in the reach of children
- Unplug the machine before opening the lid and removing the basket and jewellery
Jewellery cleaning process
To begin the cleaning process, the cleaning tank is filled with warm water or a cleaning solution. Cleaning solutions can consist of non-ionic surfactants, detergents or ammonia. Note that cleaning agents with bleach and acids should be avoided.
Place jewelry items in the basket or directly into the cleaning tank.
Turn the machine on. Once on, the machine's motor produces ultrasonic energy which is transmitted with vibrating energy waves. On average, ultrasonic jewelry cleaners emit at least 40,000 sound waves per second.
The vibrating motion of the ultrasonic waves creates microscopic bubbles in the water or cleaning solution in a process called cavitations; millions of tiny bubbles knock into one another and into the items resting in the cleaning tank. The cavitation process gently knocks dirt off the jewelry. The motion is very effective at penetrating the tiny crevices in jewelry that traditional cleaning cloths and topical cleaners cannot easily reach.
After a few moments, the cleaning process is complete. Once the motor is turned off, the dirt and debris from the jewelry will settle and collect at the bottom of the cleaning tank. Remove the basket or jewelry from the cleaning tank and rinse with clean fresh water. You can complete the process by drying the jewelry with a soft cloth.
The easiest way to clean jewelry nowadays is to use an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner. Ultrasound technology offers the most advanced, precise, and least harmful method of micro cleaning a wide range of items.
Using Ultrasonic Jewelry Cleaner , one can clean jewelry in less than five minutes without scrubbing, polishes, or harsh chemicals. A regular ultrasonic jewelry cleaner unit uses water and gentle ultrasonic waves to dislodge dirt and dust from rings, eyeglasses, bracelets, necklaces, as well as other jewelry belongings.
Modern ultrasonic jewelry cleaners are easy to use. One simply place jewelry in the chamber of the ultrasonic cleaner, fill with water, close the cover, and turn it on. In three to five minutes,jewelry is sparkling and ready to wear.
The chemical solution used for electrolytic cleaning is not much different from that used in the ultrasonic process. Electrolytic cleaning is used in the majority of the applications based on phosphoric acid or alkaline solution. Some additives may be used to increase the conductivity of the solutions.
The temperature is also an important parameter. It is usually necessary to cool down the bath as electrolytic process generates a great deal of heat in the bath. Conductivity of the solution is increased by the temperature but cannot be too close to the solution’s boiling point as creation of bubbles reduces the conductivity. The working temperature range is normally between 40°C (104°F) and 60°C (140°F)
