Introduction to ultrasonic stress relief

This section describes a variety of processes and effects related to ultrasonic stress relief for materials processing, replacing conventional heat-treatment processes which can be energy-intensive and / or impractical for large components. Some of the beneficial effects include:

• Fast stress relief
• Fatigue life extension
• Accelerated aging and material-properties stabilization
• Early detection of mechanical defects
• Ability to treat components too large for any oven
• Algae, Barnacles & Biofilm removal
• Surface implantation of different particles and powders
• Quenching and hardening
• Improved surface coating
• Coatings over welds to extend fatigue life
• Accelerated neutralization of free radicals
• Polymerization
• De-polymerization Degassing and de-bubbling. Improved alloying and casting
• Production of homogenous biocompatible alloys. Facilitated implantation and/or penetration
• Enhanced cleaning and sterilization
• Deep capillary cleaning

One or more of a variety of treatment methods may be used depending on the required effects and equipment limitations, eg. size and access. The methods used include:

• MMM ultrasonic (screw-on / clamp-on)
• Ultrasonic bath
• Ultrasonic vapor chamber
• Ultrasonic sand blasting
• Ultrasonic chemical etching,
• Shot and ball peening

Many applications will be described in detail in the following pages, including:

• Ultrasonic stress relief
• Fatigue life testing
• Preventive maintenance
• Real-time cleaning of deposits and scaling
• Cleaning, descaling, cutting, liquid-metals agitation
• Ultrasonic vibrothermography
• Ultrasonic dry cleaning
• Optimized surface coating

More stress relief literature and presentations on our downloads website.

MMM-Patent application