Hello,
I was wondering if I can use other solvents such as salt water or mineral oil to post-wash the part in a ultrasonic cleaner, after first washing with IPA/TPM.
I am trying to print a part with Elastic 50A that has long complicated channels. However, because the viscosity of Elastic 50A is too high, it is too hard to clean the channels properly. Even if I washed the channels with IPA additionally using a syringe, there were always some residuals that feel like half-cured resin on the walls of the channels that can only be partially removed with high pressure air and occasionally block the channel.
After many trials, I arrived to the way of just using a ultrasonic cleaner. However, because some resins, including Elastic 50A, swell when they are in IPA/TPM for a long time, the ultrasonic cleaner couldn’t work quite well with a short wash time. I tried washing using 20kHz sonicator with IPA for 10 min, after first washing the part using FormWash with IPA and removing the supports, while following a NASA tech brief paper on ultrasonic cleaning using volatile solvents.
From the Formlabs Solvent Compatibility Materials, there are some 'solvent’s that are not absorbed to the parts, such as salt water or mineral oil. I’m sure that these "solvent"s are just meaning liquids, and not a proper tool to wash a part, but they seem like a good combination when used with a ultrasonic cleaner.
If I can use the ultrasonic cleaner with a long wash time using a solvent that does not swell the parts, after washing the parts with IPA/TPM first, that will really save my time and my health (because I wash the channels with a syringe, while submerging the part and my hand in IPA), and prevent destroying the parts.
Is there anyone that have tried ultrasonic cleaning with other liquids instead of IPA/TPM? Or any information about the non-swelling solvents working with Elastic 50A resin?
Thank you for the interest.