Has anyone had issues with their sintered discs after untrasonically cleaning them. I had ran 3 of my 5mics through the cleaner with isopropyl. And they all look beautiful. Dried them in the oven at high temp under full vac. The results looked to be beautiful. I was like wow why didnt i do this years ago.
Since doing this i have been faced with non stopped clogging. First they trinkle than they plug.
Im dumbfounded. I have no idea whats happening
Are you running cold through the crc ?
What temp is “high temp” ?
Basically hot enough to avoid the clouds(thca cold crash) that form when the solution gets cold and saturated enough. If I go off from what I see in a jar when that cloud forms I would say it’s between 70-100f where you wanna be
Maybe whatever was stuck in your sintered disc turned to carbon when you baked it and just plugged it up even more.
What temp did you bake it?
My sintered disc cleaning goes like this, take off machine, back flush with iso, place upside down(fluid exit site up) in my sonic bath at 60c for 5 mins, back flush with iso again, wipe with kimwipe, place into vac oven at 160c for 20mins, comes out brand new
Yes i run cold.
I also have gotten to the point of now taking this freshly cleaned sintered disc. After a 2 hr bath at room temp. Only heating itself by the vibration its makes. Sintered facing down so dirt falls out. Then putting in the oven. I have tried both sides in the oven at 65c all night long under max vac. To properly evaporate all the solvent. Doing this i have encoutered my clogging problem. 1 of these discs was only used 1 time. So i am completely dumbfounded.
I normally just flush my disc using my flush tank full of butane and cycle it room temp. Warm up solvent and run it back while its hot. Found the ultrasonic cleaner worked faster and better tbh till now
I cant even run room temp clean solvent through the disc. Just trinkles. All of them do this now
Go for a hot acetone soak, sonicated
Follow with boiling distilled water
Sonicate.
If that fails
Try a supersaturated solution of KOH and sonicate.
Super KOH eats just about anything
Sonication will pack whatever particles are present and unable to be solvated tight into the pores of the sintered disk
That’s super wierd. I haven’t ever ultrasonic cleaned my discs and they haven’t ever clogged. What’s your filtration like prior to the discs?
Crank up the temp to 165c it will remove the debris that you have lodged in between the sintered steel.
A base bath (KOH supersaturated in EtOH or iso) will clear it, but if you leave it too long it will etch the pores too much and change your filter micron size.
Edit: Base baths are very hazardous. They will etch/thin glass (change the volume of volumetrics) and can make explosive metal hydrides.
My discs neverfully clogged but the flow started reducing majorly so i decided to start flushing/sonically cleaning them everyday to maintain a heavy flow. Im trying to get a heavy flow to reduce contact time in my material columns.
I hear that. What psi n2 are you using?
Try using nitrogen to blow them out while they are still wet . Try not baking in the oven and just letting them air dry over night on a drying rack . Drop your oven temp to closer to 30 - 35 C as an alternative to air drying so you can let them sit under full vac . Is your ultra sonic cleaner dirty ? Have you tried changing the iso ?
If it’s clogged it’s clogged; why would it trickle then plug?
If it’s getting more clogged as it’s running it sounds like you are pushing more and more fines into the disc
You should be able to tell your disc is clogged when you pressure test before introducing solvent into the system. If it’s partly clogged I imagine you should be able to see that as well.
I have 3 filters I have ran dozens and dozens of runs through each one. I just flip it upside down and let ethanol and gravity do it’s thing.
How are you laying it down in the ultrasonic I found laying it in on its side was the most effective and how clean was the iso before putting it into the ultrasonic ?
Brand new iso.
Right now i have it in a pyrex filled with acetone. After i pull it out i blast nitrogen through the back and it looks like faint yellow wax comes out of the pours. I have done this 3 times now and it keeps happening
I use a pressure washer and then dry in the vac oven havent had a clog since i stopped using the ultra sonic bath. Also turning upside down and filling the bottom with alcohol and let it drip through or if possible ill run them backwards on a column to clean.
Right now they are being ran backwards with 65c butane/propane running over them
They work again.
Thing is im dumbfounded what is going to be the fastest way cleaning em going forward. I just dont understand how they got fucked up in my ultrasonic cleaner to begin with. Somethings not adding up.
Im not one to really reach out for help. I can diagnose all my problems myself. Idk lol i hit a wall. Its been a few years since this has happened.
Something so simple too
