Patent ID: 8473262
Filing Date: 2013-06-25
Classification: B08B,G01N,G02B

Abstract:
1. Apparatus for use with a device that has an exposed window surface, or an exposed active transducing surface that is part of a transducer and is outside any sealed chamber that may be associated with the device, and is (a) critical to performance of the device and (b) operated at least partially submerged within and in direct contact with an aqueous medium and (c) susceptible to biofouling; said apparatus comprising: an ultrasonic cleaning system operative at a frequency or frequencies in a range of approximately twenty kilohertz to nearly four hundred kilohertz; and means for substantially directly fixing the system to or integrating the system into such critical surface, to vibrate such surface and thereby reduce or substantially eliminate biofouling of such surface, particularly formation of biofilm on such surface.