Patent ID: 7147755

Claim:
A method of treating a liquid or a slurry with ultrasonic energy to form and implode bubbles disposed in the liquid or slurry to reduce fiber flocculation of fibers disposed in the liquid or slurry, comprising: providing a movable endless member being permeable to a liquid, a transverse foil being disposed below the movable endless member and extending across the movable endless member, a transducer being in operative engagement with the transverse foil, the movable endless member and the transverse foil having a gap formed therebetween, the gap representing a gap distance; moving the movable endless member about rollers; the transducer generating vibrations into the transverse foil to form imploding bubbles in the liquid disposed above the movable endless member, the bubbles having a critical diameter prior to implosion that is greater than the gap distance to prevent the imploding bubbles from being disposed in the gap and the bubbles imploding to generate pressure pulses to the fiber flocculation to separate the fibers from one another.